The last Nadcap meeting took place in Pittsburgh, PA in October 2014. At the last Nadcap meeting, the following recognition awards were presented:

For contribution and work on the Nadcap Management Council (NMC): Christian Buck - SAFRAN Group
For service as Metrics Committee Chair and contribution and work on the NMC: Bob Bodemuller - Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp.
For contribution and work on the Aerospace Quality Systems (AQS) Task Group: Patrice Bleau - Bombardier Aerospace
In recognition of service as Chairperson of the Materials Testing Laboratories (MTL) Task Group: Tim Myers - Honeywell Aerospace
In recognition of service as Chairperson of the Nonconventional Machining & Surface Enhancement (NMSE) Task Group: Alex Pohoata - Honeywell Aerospace

In keeping with the original spirit and purpose of the Nadcap program, all Nadcap meetings and related activities are conducted for the benefit of the aerospace industry as a whole. There are many advantages to participating in a Nadcap meeting, such as:

Learning about and participating in Task Group activities such as checklist development
Attending Nadcap Management Council (NMC) and Supplier Support Committee (SSC) meetings to learn about current activities in the Nadcap community and sub-team initiatives
Networking with other delegates including aerospace Prime contractors, Suppliers and PRI staff
Benefiting from free eQuaLearn training such as Root Cause Corrective Action, How to Prepare for a Nadcap Audit and Introduction to Pyrometry

In addition, at the October 2014 Nadcap meeting in Pittsburgh, the Supplier Support Committee (SSC) announced the results of the 2013 Supplier Survey. This was the fifth Survey issued by the SSC, which has conducted Supplier Surveys biennially since 2003. The Surveys focus on topics of significance for companies holding or pursuing Nadcap accreditation to gauge the state of the industry and identify areas where Nadcap stakeholders may contribute to continual improvement.

This Survey saw the greatest ever number of responses - 2,818 from 50 countries around the world, a 78% increase over the last survey in 2011. In addition, the 2013 Survey received the greatest number of non-US responses in the history of SSC Surveys, indicating the increasingly global nature of the industry.

86% of respondents were enthusiastic about the positives of Nadcap, identifying benefits such as improved customer satisfaction, improved process efficiency, reduced escapes to customers, reduced defect rate, increased revenue growth and improved first-time yield.

Redundant audits is a key issue for Nadcap accredited suppliers, and the Survey results indicated that the efforts in this area had had a positive outcome, as nearly one-third (32%) had experienced a reduction in redundant audits.

Moving forward, the key action for the SSC from the Survey will be to focus on improving communication with the supplier base, as that was the number one area of improvement the respondents said they would like to see the SSC work on.

The next Nadcap meeting takes place in Berlin, Germany (2 - 6 March 2015). Learn more at http://www.p-r-i.org/nadcap/nadcap-meetings/

Learn more at www.p-r-i.org,
or contact Joanna Leigh: jleigh@p-r-i.org