Handbook · 26 chapters, free to read online

The MRB and Nonconformance Kit Handbook

A complete, working system for nonconforming product in an aerospace shop: find it, tag it, hold it, contain it, decide on it with the right authority and the customer's authorization where the contract requires it, act on it, learn from it, and keep the hold area empty.

Start reading: chapter 1 The kit's tools

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The problem it solves

Every shop writes NCRs. What separates a sound nonconformance system from a leaky one is everything after: whether the suspect parts were all found, whether the hold area matches the log, whether a use-as-is had the design authority's approval and the customer's authorization where the contract required it, whether the scrap was actually made unusable, whether anyone noticed the same scratch for the second time, and how long product has been sitting in the cage waiting for a decision. This handbook is the operating manual for the MRB and Nonconformance Kit. It sets out one workflow from the moment something is found to the moment the record closes, who may decide what, how to run the material review board every week, how to handle use-as-is and repair, scrap, suppliers and suspect parts, what to measure, and how to set it all up in thirty days with the kit's five tools.

Who it is for

Quality managers who own nonconforming product control; quality engineers and engineers who sit on the material review board; supervisors, inspectors and stores who find, tag and hold product; and the plant manager who backs the system.

When to use it

When the hold area keeps filling, when NCRs wait weeks for a decision, after a finding on dispositions or customer authorization, when you take over a quality system, or a quarter before a customer or registrar audit.

How to use this handbook

Read chapters 1 to 3: why nonconformance systems leak, the kit, and the workflow it runs.
Agree the roles and the authority matrix in chapters 4 and 8 with your plant manager before you change anything.
Follow the thirty-day setup in chapter 18, using the tools named at each step.
Run the weekly board and the monthly review in chapter 17 from the second week; use chapters 19 and 20 to write or check your procedure.
Read the worked example in chapter 21 to see every tool used on Meridian's October cases.
Post the quick reference (chapter 23) at the hold area and in the quality office, and give your plant manager the one page in chapter 24.

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
Nonconformance	A product or characteristic that does not meet a specified requirement: the drawing, the specification, the purchase order or the customer's quality clauses.
NCR	Nonconformance report: the record of one nonconformance, from finding to closure.
Suspect product	Product that may be nonconforming because it was made, processed or checked the same way as product found nonconforming.
Containment	Finding and holding every suspect part, wherever it is, while the cause is found.
Hold area	The controlled place where nonconforming and suspect product waits for a disposition; often called the MRB cage or quarantine.
Disposition	The decision on what to do with nonconforming product: rework, repair, scrap, use-as-is or return to supplier.
Rework	Bringing the product back to full conformance with the drawing and specification.
Repair	Making the product usable for its intended use when it will not fully meet the drawing afterward.
Use-as-is	Accepting the product without rework or repair, on a technical justification.
Material review board (MRB)	The people with authority to decide use-as-is, repair and other non-routine dispositions: usually quality and engineering.
Design authority	The organization responsible for the design: the customer for build-to-print parts, your engineering for your own designs, or someone the design organization has delegated in writing.
Customer authorization	The customer's written agreement to a use-as-is or repair, needed before release where the contract requires it.
Concession	A customer's written permission to use or ship product that does not meet a requirement; also called a deviation, waiver or repair approval.
Technical justification	The calculation, analysis or test that shows a use-as-is or repaired part still meets form, fit and function.
Correction	What is done with the nonconforming product itself.
Corrective action	Action that removes the cause of a nonconformity so it does not happen again.
Suspect counterfeit part	A part with objective evidence suggesting it may be counterfeit, held until resolved and never returned to the supplier.
Age limit	The number of days product may sit in the hold area without a disposition before it goes to the top of the board's agenda.
Cost of nonconformance	Material and labor lost or redone, sorting, freight and inspection caused by a nonconformance.

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Authorities, age limits, follow-up times and the rhythm here are starting points. Who may authorize each disposition, whether a disposition needs the customer's authorization, and how and when delivered nonconforming product is notified are set by your contracts, your customers' quality requirements and your own procedure, and they come first.

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.