MFN was able to get an interview with Joe Pinto, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Performance Review Institute.

You have been acting as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of PRI for over 4 years. How would you reflect this time being in such a crucial position?

I joined PRI in August 2010. I had retired from PPG after 23 years in June 2010. Originally, I intended to spend my time relaxing, but I am an active person and after a short time, I wanted to do something different.

When I started at PRI, it was clear to me that the focus of the organization had been mainly on the prime contractors; after all, they are the ones who mandate Nadcap accreditation throughout the supply chain. And I am proud that, since I started here, Nadcap has gained its first South American and Asian Subscribers ¡V Embraer from Brazil and COMAC from China joined the program in 2012 and Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation (MITAC)/Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) became a Subscriber in 2014. As a result, Nadcap now has members from throughout the global industry ¡V the Americas, Europe and Asia ¡V representing approximately 85% of the major Prime contractors.

However, there are far more Suppliers holding and seeking Nadcap accreditation than there are Subscribers ¡V we're talking thousands of Suppliers compared to around 50 Subscribers. My plan was to focus more on the Suppliers. We can learn from their expertise just as much as they can learn from ours. While I feel that there is still some way to go, looking back at the time I've spent at PRI so far, there have been great strides in this direction.

The results of the most recent Nadcap Supplier Survey showed that 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%) have experienced a reduction in redundant audits.

This was the fifth Survey issued by the Nadcap Supplier Support Committee, 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 ¡V 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 among Suppliers as well as Subscribers.

To be accredited by Nadcap has become an important milestone for many companies around the world. Would you be able to explain why? In what industries are these companies mostly located?

Achieving Nadcap accreditation has become an important milestone for many companies around the world because Nadcap audits are not easy ¡V anyone who has participated in one will tell you that. It can take months of preparation followed by weeks of post-audit activity to successfully achieve Nadcap accredited status.

Nadcap is an intense, objective, quality-focused audit that, without compromise, validates compliance to customer requirements. It is not a general quality or ISO audit and this is important; they are process capability assessment audits that go in depth across a range of special processes, products and methods. Consequently, receiving Nadcap accreditation is considered a significant achievement, and represents a milestone for many companies around the world because it demonstrates that a company has attained a level of quality in their work that is internationally recognized by their industry peers. As described earlier, companies with Nadcap accreditation report benefits such as improved customer satisfaction, reduced escapes to customers, reduced defect rate, increased revenue growth and improved first time yield.

Nadcap is an aerospace industry-managed program that exists to serve the aerospace industry; consequently, all the companies that hold Nadcap accreditation work, or want to work, in the aerospace industry, although many of them work in other industries as well. Those other industries are typically ones where, like aerospace, safety and quality are shared goals, such as nuclear. Major companies in those industries also recognize what it means to be Nadcap accredited, and actively source suppliers who hold Nadcap accreditation.

In the case of the medical device manufacturing industry, companies saw a need to create an audit program customized to meet their specific needs. As a result, MedAccred has been established as an industry-managed supply chain oversight program that reduces risk to patient safety, assures quality products and compliance with requirements as they apply to critical processes used in the production of medical devices. MedAccred is far less mature than Nadcap ¡V the first audit took place in January 2015 ¡V but the goal is to realize the same benefits for the medical device manufacturing industry participants as the aerospace industry has seen through Nadcap.

Your organisation is globally active. What are your most important markets and in which markets do you see the largest potential for audits?

Our first priority is always to our existing customers. They are our most important market. In terms of potential for audits, however, as far as Nadcap is concerned, the growth is really coming from Asia, and I expect to see that continue.

To support our customers in Asia, PRI has signed Memoranda of Understanding with a number of regional bodies, such as AAIS-SPRING in Singapore, MIGHT in Malaysia, CAPE in China and JAQG in Japan. Most of these agreements focus on the development of the aerospace manufacturing industry in those countries through training or other support towards Nadcap accreditation. In addition, PRI recently established a Joint Venture with AVIC International in China in order to work together and provide comprehensive support for quality systems auditing, Nadcap special process accreditation and the relevant training of the premier Chinese suppliers who intend to enter the civil aircraft industry. India and Russia are also countries with a lot of potential for aerospace manufacturing and PRI is working there as well, to support their growth.

What type of different processes is your organisation auditing? Is there a particular reason why especially these processes have been chosen?

Nadcap audits cover a range of special processes i.e. processes where the parameters are directly influenced by component geometry and/or the results cannot be confirmed by inspection. The most common examples in Nadcap are chemical processing, heat-treating, non-destructive testing and welding.

In some cases, Nadcap also audits non-special process areas, such as composites and electronics. The newest area for Nadcap is measurement and inspection, with audits covering topics such as coordinate measuring machines, airflow and laser trackers and articulated arms. The areas in which Nadcap operates, and the scope of the audits themselves, are decided by Nadcap customers ¡V Subscribers and Suppliers. There can be any number of reasons why some special process and non-special process focus areas are pursued in Nadcap and others not ¡V some are more critical than others; some carry greater risk than others; some evidence more non-conformances than others. In all cases, we are guided by Industry need.

Looking ahead of time, what are some of the main targets PRI would like to accomplish?

Continuing to meet the needs of all our customers is vital and remains an ongoing target, changing as our customer needs evolve; therefore, listening to our customers and ensuring they have adequate opportunity to input into our activities is key.

Based on their feedback, for Nadcap, this means introducing new Task Groups as required by industry (Castings and Forging is a currently development opportunity) and ensuring that the audit checklists in all areas remain current, value-added, cost-effective and focused. For MedAccred, and activities in other industries where safety and quality are shared values, the target is to facilitate the establishment of a special process industry-managed accreditation program that meets their needs.

Ultimately, as the global authority in facilitating industry-managed programs and administering special process accreditation programs, PRI exists to help industries where safety and quality are shared values by offering customer-focused solutions designed to improve process and product quality by adding value, reducing total cost and promoting collaboration among stakeholders. That is our target, and always will be.

MFN would like to thank Joe Pinto for the interview!

For Information:
Performance Review Institute
161 Thorn Hill Rd
Warrendale, Pennsylvania 15086-7527 USA
Tel. +1.724.772 1616
Fax +1.724.772 1699
E-mail: pri@p-r-i.org
www.p-r-i.org