Meridian Aerostructures machines brackets, housings, fittings, manifolds and skin panels, mostly build-to-print for Customer A (example). Its board is R. Chen (quality manager) and J. Alvarez (manufacturing engineer), with M. Okafor (quality engineer) preparing cases and S. Patel (supplier quality engineer) for supplier matters; D. Ruiz keeps the cage. The numbers below are the ones on the example tabs of D19 , D20 , D18 , F09 and B11 .
A closed case from start to finish: NCR-26-298, MRB-26-014
Find and record (August 19). L. Nguyen's first-piece check on the next lot of 5120-110 brackets found hole H3 off position. The 8 brackets of lot L-2655 already machined were measured 100 percent on the CMM: H3 0.004 in off its rev D position on all 8. Tagged at the machine; NCR-26-298 on the log (D19 ) the same shift.
Contain. Op 20 had run a program for the superseded rev C hole pattern. Every lot run on that program since the rev D release was checked: only L-2655 affected. Nothing shipped.
Board (August 26), MRB-26-014 (D20 ). Evaluation first: H3 is a clearance hole for a #10 fastener; at worst case the fastener still clears by 0.006 in and edge distance stays above the drawing minimum; no safety or key characteristic; interchangeable. Disposition proposed: use-as-is, technical justification TJ-26-014.
Authorize. Design authority: Customer A (example), because the part is build-to-print. Contract: purchase order quality clause Q7 requires customer authorization of use-as-is. Request sent August 26; concession C-2207 received August 31.
Act (September 1). Released to stock; C-2207 written on the traveler and the certificate of conformance for the 8 serials.
Learn. CAPA required: yes, because a wrong-revision program had already caused NCR-26-154 in April. Linked to CAPA-26-026 rather than opening a second CAPA for the same cause. Closed September 2. Every closure line on the MRB record reads Yes.
The repeat nobody would have connected: NCR-26-364, MRB-26-017
October 9. One 7710-014 skin panel scratched in the cart transfer at op 50. The board (October 12) proposed the same blend-and-refinish repair Customer A approved under RA-0441 in June for NCR-26-219, and requested authorization RA-0467 on October 13.
The flag. The log marked 'Raise or link the CAPA': CAPA required, no reference. The June scratch had closed under CAPA-26-034 in July with separators fitted to the carts. The same failure mode, same operation, three months later: CAPA-26-034 has not held. The board's job is not a second repair approval; it is to reopen the corrective action.
The hold-area walk (October 30, D18 ) found the panel correctly held with separators in place, 21 days in the cage, and the FOD audit the same day found the carts' separators fitted (D13 ). So the cause is not the separators: the reopened CAPA starts from there.
The case that waited too long: NCR-26-188, MRB-26-009
Fifteen 9020-050 spacers, length 0.503 to 0.504 in against 0.500 +/- 0.002. Use-as-is proposed on June 2 on a shim-stack justification; authorization requested June 3 under clause Q7. No answer after follow-ups on July 8, August 19 and October 6.
On October 31 the MRB log showed 150 days waiting and the flag 'Customer answer over 30 days: chase'. The walk counted 157 days in the cage. What should have happened: a call to the customer's engineer at 30 days, and at 60 days the question 'shall we re-disposition?'. The November 4 board will decide between a call at the engineering-manager level and scrapping and remaking 15 spacers, which costs less than five months of carrying the case.
Suspect material: NCR-26-372, MRB-26-018
October 15. Receiving found the heat number on the certificate for 30 cut blanks of 15-5PH bar for 2210-040 fittings (receipt S-4496 from Supplier N (example)) read R-30817, while the bar was marked R-30871. 2210-040 is a flight safety part (D01 ), so the receipt was in the Elevated band of the counterfeit plan (D03 ).
What the system did. Tagged as suspect and put on the locked shelf the same morning; quality told within 2 hours and Customer A within 20, inside their 72 (D15 , event PSE-26-04). Supplier N offered to swap the blanks; refused, because a suspect part is not returned while suspect. The traceability register (D05 ) showed the previous receipt from the same source, S-4471, with heat and certificate in agreement, and found that WO-26-3310's traveler lacked its heat number, which was corrected.
On October 31 the case was Pending, waiting for Supplier N to send the mill certificate of heat R-30871 and the record of which bar the blanks were cut from.
The hold-area walk, October 30 (D18)
M. Okafor walked the cage with D. Ruiz before the week's board, with the logs printed the day before. Seven NCRs were open; six had product in the cage and the seventh, NCR-26-370, had none, correctly, because the two housings were at Customer A (example) being re-identified under their acceptance.
Three problems, none of them visible on the log: a tote of 3 brackets on the Cell 3 deburr bench with a sticky note and no tag (NCR-26-391 raised on the spot); the tote for NCR-26-379 with no return reference on its tag, so it looked like product still waiting for a decision; and the housing scrapped under NCR-26-355 on October 5 still whole on the scrap shelf (cut through at 09:00, so that NCR can close). One case over the age limit went onto the board's agenda: NCR-26-188, 157 days.
Containment on the anodize repeat (B11)
When the fourth thin-anodize receipt arrived (NCR-26-386, October 27), S. Patel worked B11 checklist 1 rather than sorting the receipt and stopping there: the stock from Supplier F's earlier lots, the two lots still at the supplier, and the brackets already shipped inside assemblies. Every location got a number, including 'none in transit, shipping log checked'. The receipt was dispositioned return to supplier, and the supplier audit on October 29 (D12 ) followed.
What the month shows
Every problem in Meridian's October was visible in the kit's tools before anyone had to go looking: an aging flag, a CAPA flag, a reconciliation line, a receiving band. None of it needed a better NCR form. It needed the weekly walk and the weekly board to read what the tools were already saying.
← Chapter 20 The findings we see most, and the fix Chapter 22 → What an auditor samples, and where the answer is 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.
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.