Nadcap

Nadcap is an industry-managed approach to conformity assessment that brings together technical experts from both Industry and Government to establish requirements for accreditation, accredit Suppliers and define operational program requirements. This results in a standardized approach to quality assurance and a reduction in redundant auditing throughout the aerospace industry because Prime contractors, Suppliers and Government representatives have joined forces to develop a program that: Establishes stringent industry consensus standards that satisfy the requirements of all participants Replaces routine auditing of suppliers with one approved through a consensus decision-making process of members from the user community Conducts more in-depth, technically superior special process audits Improves supplier quality throughout industry through stringent requirements Reduces costs through improved standardization Utilizes technically expert auditors to assure process familiarity Provides more frequent audits for Primes, fewer audits for Suppliers Prior to Nadcap, aerospace companies audited their own Suppliers to their own process requirements to verify compliance. As the processes the Suppliers were providing to their customers were often similar or identical, the customer requirements were comparable. Consequently, these duplicate audits were redundant and simply added to everyone’s workload, without adding value. For the aerospace Prime contractors, conducting their own audits similarly meant duplication of effort, redundant audits, unnecessary administration and, ultimately, higher cost for no added value. Then, in November 1989, a US Government/Industry Equal Partners Conference recommended a consensus solution to the duplication of Supplier process control system audits and in July 1990, the Performance Review Institute was incorporated to administer the Nadcap program.