Prior to the adoption of an aerospace specific quality standard, various corporations typically used ISO 9000 and their own complementary quality documentation/requirements, such as Boeing's D1-9000 or the automotive Q standard. This created a patchwork of competing requirements that were difficult to enforce and/or comply with. As a result the major American aerospace manufacturers combined their efforts to create a single, unified quality standard, resulting in AS9000. Upon the release of AS9000, companies such as Boeing discontinued use of their previous quality supplements in preference to compliance to AS9000.
During the rewrite of ISO 9000 for the year 2000 release, the AS group worked closely with the ISO organization. As the year 2000 revision of ISO 9000 incorporated major organizational and philosophical changes, AS9000 underwent a rewrite as well. It was released as AS9100 to the international aerospace industry at the same time as the new version of ISO 9000. |
