Handbook · 23 chapters, free to read online

The Management Review Kit Handbook

A formal, standardized management review for an aerospace supply shop: who brings what and when, how the pack, the agenda and the meeting turn inputs into decisions, and how every decision is followed until it is shown to work.

Start reading: chapter 1 The kit's tools

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The problem it solves

In many small aerospace shops management review is a meeting held because the standard asks for one: scheduled when an audit is near, fed by slides assembled the night before, run as a series of report-outs, and minuted as discussion. Inputs go missing, nothing is decided, and the actions that are written down are rediscovered at the next review. Auditors find it, but the bigger cost is that the one meeting where top management is supposed to steer the quality system steers nothing. This handbook is the operating manual for the Management Review Kit. It sets out the whole cycle, from the year's calendar to the verification of the last action, who does what, which tool to use at each step, how to run the meeting so it decides, and how to set it up in thirty days.

Who it is for

Quality directors and quality managers who own the management review, and the general manager or plant manager who chairs it.

When to use it

When you write or rewrite your management review process; when your reviews produce discussion instead of decisions; after an audit finding on management review; or a quarter before your next review.

How to use this handbook

Read chapters 1 to 4: why reviews disappoint, the kit's tools, the review cycle and the roles.
Agree the chair, the frequency and the roles with your general manager before you change anything.
Write your procedure from the Management Review Standard (AQL-F01) using chapter 5.
Follow the thirty-day setup in chapter 17, using the tools named for each week.
Prepare, run and minute the next review with chapters 6 to 13.
Read the worked example in chapter 18: one quarterly review at Meridian through every tool in the kit.
Give your general manager the one page in chapter 21 and keep the quick reference in chapter 22 at hand.

The chapters

Aegis Insights: how we approach this work

Aegis Insights are our own guidance: how we approach this work and why, from years inside aerospace quality systems. They are not requirements of any standard or customer.

Definitions

Term	What it means here
Management review	A planned meeting where top management looks at how the quality system is performing and decides what to change, fund or improve.
Chair	The member of top management who runs the review and signs the minutes.
Review coordinator	The person who prepares the review, takes the minutes and keeps the register: usually the quality manager.
Input	Information management must look at during the review.
Input owner	The person who supplies and presents an input; named by role in the standard and by name on the matrix.
Data pack	The set of input summaries issued before the review, with a Summary and a record index.
Decision sought	What management is asked to decide on an input, written before the meeting.
Conclusion	The chair's judgment on an input: effective, needs action, or not adequate.
Suitable, adequate, effective, aligned	The four conclusions the chair states about the quality system.
Output	A decision or action from the review: an improvement, a change to the quality system, a resource need or an action on a risk.
Read-back	Reading every output aloud with its owner and date before the meeting closes.
Action register	The single list of every output from every review, followed to verified closure.
Re-date	A new due date granted by the review or its chair, with the first date kept.
Verification	A check, by someone other than the owner, that a completed action did what it was meant to.
Annual review	The first review of the year, which also covers policy, scope, objectives and resources.
Extra review	A review called outside the schedule because of an event the standard names.

Need more than one resource, or not sure where to start? Book a complimentary 30-minute Aegis Quality Guidance Call. We'll find the tools that fit your situation and a sensible place to start. No sales pressure, no obligation.

Frequencies, lead times, time boxes and escalation points here are starting points; set your own in your standard to fit your size, risks and customers, whose own management review requirements come first where they add to it.

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.