Containment protects the customer while you find the cause. It is not the corrective action, and it does not wait for the cause. Its job is to find every suspect part, wherever it is, and to make sure the customer knows about all of it.
- Set the suspect window from records. Start at the last time the characteristic was shown good, and end where a check or a fix now stops suspect output. The escape template (AQL-B12, Part C) asks how the window was set.
- Search every location. At the customer (stock, line, their customers), in transit, in your finished goods and work in process, at outside processors, in spares and returns, and on other part numbers that share the process.
- Use a check that can see the defect. If the planned gauge missed it, the same gauge will miss it again in the sort.
- Put a number in every row. 'None in transit, shipping log checked' is a finding; a blank row is a place nobody looked.
- Tell the customer about the lots they have not found. The same day you find them, with lot numbers and quantities (AQL-B15, letter 2).
- Give every temporary check an end condition. Added inspection stays until a stated condition is met, and the condition is written down.
| The customer hears from us | When | Letter |
|---|---|---|
| Received, reference, owner, next update | The same day | B15 letter 1 |
| Every suspect lot, including ones they have not reported | The day you find them | B15 letter 2 |
| Sort results, replacements and the temporary check | When containment is complete | B15 letter 2 |
| Interim response if the cause is not yet confirmed | By their response date | B15 letter 3 (interim) |
| Root cause, escape cause, actions and how they will be proven | By their response date | B15 letter 3 |
| The effectiveness result and a request to close | When the window ends | B15 letter 4 |
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A management aid, not certification or a registrar audit. Using it does not by itself show conformity to AS9100D or any other standard, and your customers' requirements may add to it.
Clause numbers refer to AS9100D (SAE AS9100 Rev D) unless another document is named. The standards' text is not reproduced here: use your own licensed copy.
Aegis Insights are our own guidance, labeled wherever they appear: how we approach this work, not a requirement of any standard or customer.