New Paradigm Consulting - The Fresh Approach

Nicholl Engineering

Location

Mallusk, Northern Ireland

Project Overview

Nicholl Engineering established in Mallusk, Northern Ireland (just outside belfast), has been supplying the NI Aerospace Sector for over 20 years. Nicholl Engineering were already certified to ISO9001:2008, however, to meet the growing demands of their Aerospace customer base, required AS9100 Rev C certification.

The team initially attempted to develop their existing quality management system to meet the requirements of AS9100. Part way through this project, they realised the complexities of the AS9100 standard were adding a lot of administration to their day to day duties, which was impacting on their ability to turnaround orders for their customers.

To address this, the Nicholl Engineering management team engaged the services of New Paradigm Consulting with the goal of simplifying the existing Quality Management System and bolt on the requirements of AS9100C without inundating the staff with paperwork.

The project began in August 2014 and the new system was ready by late October 2014. Training was delivered to Nicholl’s management team in early November and the system went live in mid November 2014. Following the training, we provided regular on-site assistance to the management team to ensure implementation of the new system and audit preparation activities went smoothly. The AS9100 stage 1 audit was carried out in March 2015 with a clean bill of health and Nicholl Engineering achieved certification to AS9100 Rev C in May 2015 following the stage 2 audit. Particularly pleasing to the staff and New Paradigm Consulting was the fact that the auditor did not raise a single non-conformance.

This is an excellent result for the team at Nicholl Engineering and we at New Paradigm Consulting look forward to working with Trevor, Brian and the rest of the team over the coming months and years as they continue to get real value from their new Quality Management System.

Standards

ISO 9001:2008, AS9100 Rev C

Testimonial

To whom it may concern, Nicholl Engineering is a small manufacturing company that has been in existence (in one form of another) from 1969. We are experts in milling, turning and manufacturing small to medium sized parts for the aerospace industry. We are extremely committed to manufacturing quality parts and providing a quality service to our customers. To demonstrate our commitment to this, we successfully achieved and maintained certification to the ISO9001 scheme for many years. However, in their efforts to improve the performance of their entire supply chain, our main customer (Bombardier), made it a requirement / pre-requisite that all suppliers and sub-contractors achieve certification to the AS9100 scheme. In order to understand the requirements of this scheme and achieve certification, we engaged the services of New Paradigm Consulting. From the outset, Ryan showed that he was exceptionally competent and knowledgeable in the requirements of the AS9100 scheme and guided us through the process, up to and including certification in June 2015. Over the course of this project, his role as consultant incorporated; • Numerous discussions and site visits to fully understand Nicholl Engineering’s processes, • Preparation of the AS9100 Rev C compliant Quality Management System (QMS) documentation • Extensive training on the requirements of the new QMS, with particular attention paid to training Internal Auditors, • Implementation support; working alongside our staff to actually implement the system • A pragmatic approach to incorporating changes within the QMS as a result of operational changes to the business throughout the project. • Meeting with us on a regular basis to provide advice and oversee our operation of the Quality system. • Involvement in full during the certification process by liaising with the Certification Body (SGS) Sales staff and Auditing Team, both on site and through contact off site. We at Nicholl Engineering, are in no doubt that the knowledge, expertise and interpersonal skills exhibited by Ryan in his consultancy to us, was a large factor in our first time completion of the AS9100 certification process with no NCR’s. Although certification has been achieved, Ryan’s association with Nicholl Engineering has not ceased, and a programme of regular onsite reviews and guidance meetings have been scheduled on an ongoing basis. Nicholl Engineering would have no hesitation in recommending Ryan Collins and his company New Paradigm Consulting, as a consultant for any company seeking certification to an ISO or AS related scheme.
Trevor Nicholl (MD)

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