National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 9136:2018.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee ACE/1, International and European Aerospace Policy and Processes.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its secretary.

This publication does not purport to include all the necessary provisions of a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 May 2018.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 20 November 2017.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN 9136:2018) has been prepared by the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe - Standardization (ASD‑STAN).

After enquiries and votes carried out in accordance with the rules of this Association, this Standard has received the approval of the National Associations and the Official Services of the member countries of ASD, prior to its presentation to CEN.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by November 2018, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by November 2018.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN [and/or CENELEC] shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Rationale

The objective of root cause analysis and problem solving is to not only reduce the number of issues (i.e. undesirable conditions, defects, failures), but to minimize their impact on quality, delivery performance, costs, and ultimately on the customer. Often big issues originate with small problems that were discovered too late or were discovered, but were never resolved due to a lack of understanding the actual issue(s), incorrect analysis of the root cause, and/or ineffective actions being taken.

This guidance document was created to provide a methodology for performing root cause analysis to resolve a significant or recurrent issue [e.g. quality, On-Time Delivery (OTD), process, documentation), as guidance within the aviation, space, and defence industry and/or when contractually invoked at any level of the supply chain.

Foreword

In December 1998, the aviation, space, and defence industry established the International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG) with the purpose of achieving significant improvements in quality and reductions in cost throughout the value stream. This organization, with representation from aviation, space, and defence companies in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe and sponsored by SAE International, Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies (SJAC), and AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe -Standardization (ASD-STAN), has agreed to take responsibility for the technical content of this document to promote best practices that would satisfy associated requirements of Aerospace Quality Management System (AQMS) standards (i.e. 9100, 9110, 9120).

To assure customer satisfaction, aviation, space, and defence industry organizations must produce and continually improve safe, reliable products that meet or exceed customer and regulatory authority requirements. This includes having processes in place to detect and eradicate significant and recurrent issues. This document standardizes methodology to perform root cause analysis and problem solving to support these efforts. The establishment of a common methodology, for use by organizations at all levels of the supply-chain should result in improved action plans and a standardized way of exchanging information between organizations and external stakeholders (e.g. suppliers, partners, customers, regulatory agencies).

Introduction

This document has been developed by the IAQG. In accordance with the continual improvement requirements defined in the 9100-series standards (see Clause 8, “Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement”), it was deemed useful to promote those industry recognized best practices for identifying the root causes of nonconformities or undesirable conditions (including potential issues and conditions) and implementing correction(s) and associated corrective/preventive actions. The process described in this document was created by comparing and mixing root cause analysis and problem solving methodologies [e.g. 7 Steps, 8D, Root Cause Corrective Action (RCCA)] used by main actors of aviation, space, and defence industry.

Unless contractually specified, other root cause analysis processes with slightly different sequencing of activities and/or different names of process steps may be acceptable, provided that these activities meet the intent of this document and deliver the same outcomes (i.e. immediate protection, temporary fix, durable solution, systemic improvement) and provides the same level of information.

Throughout this document, the words “should” and “required” indicate strong recommendations to apply and correspond to actions that the authors of this document consider important in order to deliver robust root cause analysis. When strict application of this document is decided by an organization or is mandated by a customer, they shall be interpreted as an obligation to be complied with (i.e. interpreted as “shall” and “must”).

1 Scope

1.1 General

The objective of any organization, as part of continual improvement, is to reduce the number of issues (i.e. undesirable conditions, defects, failures) and to minimize their impact on quality, delivery performance, and cost.

This includes having processes in place to detect and eradicate significant and recurrent issues, which implies having well identified problems, a common understanding of their impact and associated root causes, and having defined and implemented adequate actions so that these problems, including similar issues will not happen again.

1.2 Purpose

Propose a methodology to improve the way escapes and issues are managed, including communication between all parties [e.g. engineering, Materials Review Board (MRB), manufacturing, manufacturing engineering, supplier, customer] to reduce their impact, contain them as far upstream as possible, and prevent recurrence (i.e. ensure the right measures are taken at the right location and at the right time).

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 General Process

4.1 Basic Principles

4.2 When to Apply a Structured Root Cause Analysis and Problem Solving Process

4.3 Process Step Description

5 Process Steps

5.1 Step 0 – Start Immediate Containment Actions

5.2 Step 1 – Build the Team

5.3 Step 2 – Define Problem

5.4 Step 3 – Complete and Optimize Containment Actions

5.5 Step 4 – Identify Root Cause(s)

5.6 Step 5 – Define and Select Permanent Corrective Actions

5.7 Step 6 – Implement Permanent Corrective Action and Check Effectiveness

5.8 Step 7 – Standardize and Transfer the Knowledge Across Business

5.9 Step 8 – Recognize and Close the Team

6 Information and documentation

6.1 Information data definition and documentation

6.2 Forms

6.3 Control of records

BS EN 9136:2018

Aerospace series. Root cause analysis and problem solving (9S Methodology)

Current

Published:

31 May 2018