Meridian Aerostructures machines aerostructure housings and brackets on five-axis and three-axis mills, two shifts, build to print. In June 2026 a customer found oversize bores on housing 4471-200 (CAPA-26-031): the cause was a finish-boring insert with no tool-life limit, and the escape a bore gauge missing from the calibration recall list. Here is how the next audit of that process ran, tool by tool.
The program: A06
R. Chen, quality manager, owns the program. On the Process list, CNC machining is rated High for customer and product risk and High for performance concerns after the escape: two Highs, so a six-month interval. The schedule puts IA-26-09 on October 13 and 14, with M. Okafor (quality engineer, lead auditor) and K. Haddad (buyer, internal auditor); D. Ruiz (inspector, in training) observes. All three are independent of machining. Corrective action and internal audit are audited by B. Ellison, a contract lead auditor, in IA-26-11.
The plan, issued October 2 and agreed by L. Nguyen (process owner) on October 5, sets the objective: confirm the machining process produces conforming parts on both shifts and that the CAPA-26-031 actions are holding. 'What we already know' lists 12 of Q3's 31 NCRs from second-shift setups, first-pass yield on Mill 7 at 94 percent against 97, and the second-shift setup technician who left in August. The samples planned include every gauge at Mills 4, 6 and 7, picked up at the machine.
Preparation: A09 and A04
P. Grant, second-shift supervisor, runs the 30-minute practice session at Mill 7 on October 8. The area walk finds an obsolete instruction at Mill 6, an unlabeled thread gauge in the Mill 7 drawer and a 5-axis setup operator not yet signed off. Only the instruction is swapped, at the machine, and the gauge question goes by email with no reply. A. Pham checks the calibration line of the evidence map on October 15, after the audit, and records it as Found: problems.
The audit: A07 and A04
Day 1 starts at Mill 4 with job 4471-200 lot L-2686, followed through operations 10 to 30: qualified operator, program O4471 rev 7, tool-life counter at 112 of 150, gauges in date. The CAPA-26-031 actions are holding. At Mill 7 on second shift, the operator checking the thread on bracket 5120-100 says honestly that he doesn't know whether the gauge is calibrated. The auditors pick up all 23 instruments at the three machines; TG-09 is not on the recall list. Request R-02 on the request log takes 34 minutes to settle.
Day 2 checks instructions at every machine (WI-30-04 at Mill 6 is at rev C again: the swapped copy came back from a drawer), programs, and training records for six operators.
The findings and the report: A08 and A11
Ref Type Clause Why this type IA-26-09-01 Major 7.1.5.2 Thread gauge used for acceptance since August, never calibrated; the third uncontrolled gauge in five months. The way instruments enter use is not controlled. IA-26-09-02 Minor 7.5.3.2 Obsolete instruction at one of three machines; the program still enforces the tool life IA-26-09-03 Minor 7.2 One operator doing setups before sign-off; first pieces approved by a qualified inspector IA-26-09-04 OFI 8.5.1 Fixture orientation in words only; a photo would help second shift
At the closing meeting on October 14 the major is presented with containment asked for: quarantine and calibrate TG-09, assess every lot it accepted, sweep every cell. The report, issued October 21, concludes the process is effective with findings to close, and names the weakness: how instruments and people enter the process, both following the second-shift vacancy.
The response: A10, run as CAPA-26-057
TG-09 is calibrated on October 14 and found within limits; 60 pieces from the five lots it accepted are re-checked and conform, so no product is affected. The floor sweep on October 16 finds three more instruments not on the list. The root cause: measuring equipment can reach the floor without passing calibration, because purchasing-card buys go to the requester and personal instruments are allowed with no step to register them. The escape cause: audits and calibration checks sampled from the list to the floor. CAPA-26-031 in June had fixed the bore gauges it found without asking how they got there.
Five actions follow, each naming its cause: delivery of all measuring equipment to calibration, registration of personal instruments, a monthly floor-to-list sweep in the layered audits, the audit checklist changed to sample from the floor, and a briefing on both shifts. The criterion, set before the actions: zero unregistered instruments in three monthly sweeps and in the next calibration audit's floor sample of 20. M. Okafor accepts the response on November 11.
The program learns
R. Chen raises Calibration and measuring equipment to three Highs on the Process list. Its audit was due October 21 and is now overdue, so IA-26-12 is brought forward to December 1, led by S. Patel, as the follow-up audit for CAPA-26-057. The A06 Summary goes to the Q4 management review with the coverage, the IA-26-09 findings, and one line the plant manager remembers: the internal audit found the gauge problem before a customer did.
Date Step Tool 2026-10-02 Plan for IA-26-09 issued; agreed October 5 A06 2026-10-08 Practice session and area walk, second shift A09 2026-10-13 and 14 Audit; request log; closing meeting with four findings A07 , A04 , A08 2026-10-16 Containment of IA-26-09-01 complete; floor sweep A10 2026-10-21 Report issued A11 2026-11-09 Response approved by the process owner and quality manager A10 2026-11-11 Response accepted by the lead auditor A10 2026-12-01 Follow-up: calibration audit IA-26-12 A06 , A07 2027-03-05 Effectiveness check due for CAPA-26-057 A10 , B08
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