I have been working with the Managing Director at Airborne Support Limited to upgrade the existing ISO 9001:2008 quality management system to the new 2015 standard. The MD set up the company in 1998 as a supplier to the aerospace industry, providing class leading aircraft spares support services to commercial and corporate operators worldwide. Airborne Support Limited offers a wide range of services from spares procurement to rotable repair management covering all types of regional aircraft from ATR42/72 BAE J41, 32 & 31 etc, these kinds of aircraft are used by airline operators operating in regions such as the Himalayas and Antarctic.

I found this project fascinating as I don’t think I had ever thought about aircraft parts in any detail before - probably like most people do, I have simply got on the aeroplane at the airport and set off on my holiday without any consideration of the large piece of equipment constructed from numerous components transporting me.

I learnt lots of new things during this project, including my new favourite acronym which is AOG (Aircraft On Ground – admittedly this has limited use in daily life) but I also learnt about the impressive level of traceability of individual aircraft parts around the world. Each individual part can be traced via its serial number through every stage of the chain as some aircraft parts are known as ‘rotable’. This means that they are ‘rotated’ out of one aeroplane, serviced and put back on another - this can be repeated until the part has reached the end of its useful life, is declared unserviceable and destroyed.

I was very pleased to receive the following feedback from the Managing Director:

Again thanks for your time and expertise in getting this project done successfully especially in light of the very tight deadlines I had given you. But as you know only too well now, our company works only a JIT basis!