Certificate of Conformity signature

[HamishMcBush]

My employer supplies some in-cabin equipment to commercial aviation airlines. We've now had a request/demand from one of these airlines stating that all Certificates of Conformity should be signed by the Quality Manager. When challenged (as QM is based remotely, ie not at the site where final product sign-off and release takes place) they've backed down to signature by a member of "the Quality Department", which for a small company like ours is a bit of a bind as we don't have full-time members of the "Quality Department" at all sites.

Traditionally our Certificates have been signed by the Production Manager who signs off finished products and performs the first-line checks on documentation, as well as visual checks that goods conform to customer order requirements.

Anyone know where we stand (regarding aviation regs etc) regarding signature by "Quality Department" ?

[HamishMcBush]

Thanks; This issue relates to a piece of medical equipment carried in the SLF cabin for use in case of emergencies. Customer in question is based (in general terms) in the Middle Eastern region of the world.....

[Snakecharma]

What they are really after is some surety that your organisation has a proper quality management system in place.

By the sound of it you don't.

They are wanting to see a quality management system that ensures that you have a quality product, that you have a published process in place and that you follow the published process (you would be amazed how many organisations go to the trouble of documenting a process and then ignore it!)

Having the production manager sign everything off is a bit like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank in that a properly implemented quality process will have some level of independence for the quality team, both in process (I.e. They won't be the people building the widget and therefore have a vested interest in not finding any faults/errors) and in reporting line - quality teams often directly report to senior management (CEO, board etc) again in order to provide some measure of independence and remove any self interest, and also to provide the customer with some sense of confidence that the product they are buying is appropriate for the task.

With regards the signing of the documentation by the quality manager, that is easy to fix by way of a delegated responsibility. Many things are signed by the person who holds position "X", with that position being delegated certain responsibilities and authorities by a different post. For example I made a change to the registration of my car the other day and the paperwork was signed by person X on behalf of the CEO.

I think the best thing you can do is ensure you have a well thought out quality process that has some measure of independence so that if the person points out a quality issue they are not the person tasked with fixing said issue, and probably more importantly the person doing the inspection isn't the person who did the work in the first place, as they are much less likely to point out a flaw in their own work.

Doesn't need to be much but develop a process and then stick to the process...

[ChickenHouse]

Sounds as if there is some business danger visible. I second that, if you had an aviation compliant system set in place, the question should never appear. During the course of certification and audit you must have set up a quality system to be allowed to sign off certificates. So, you must have some kind of written processes how, when and who is signing papers, together with an audit proof list of currently trained and official people allowed to sign certificates. I assume you are only not aware of the procedures set by the company and should ask for further education by management ;-).

[Dannyboy39]

Generally for medical kits, the C of C is signed off by the "Superintendent" Doctor.