Measures sit at three levels, and mixing them up is the most common reason a dashboard grows to forty lines. Keep them apart:
| Level | What it is | How many | Where it lives | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Objective | A result the business commits to, with a plan and resources | 3 to 6 a year | F10 Objectives | On-time delivery 95 percent by year end |
| Headline measure | Watched every month against a target, on the front page | About 12 | F08 Scorecard; F10 KPI register | First-pass yield; receiving rejects |
| Diagnostic | Opened when a headline moves, to find out why | As many as useful | F09, F11, B09 and the source systems | NCRs by cause; late lines by cause |
The kit's twelve starting measures cover the customer, the product, the process, suppliers and the corrective action system. Most small aerospace shops can start with them unchanged:
| Area | Starting measures (F08) | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Customer | On-time delivery; customer returns (PPM); customer escapes; customer complaints | What the customer feels and scores you on |
| Product | First-pass yield; internal NCRs raised; scrap and rework as a share of sales | Whether the plant makes it right the first time, and what it costs when it doesn't |
| Corrective action | Corrective actions shown effective; corrective actions past due | Whether problems get solved, and on time |
| Suppliers | Supplier on-time delivery; receiving rejects (PPM) | Supplier problems become your late lines and your escapes |
| System | Internal audits done to plan | An early sign the system is under strain |
Before adding a measure, ask four questions. Does a customer score us on it, or does an objective depend on it? Can it be counted from a record, the same way every month? Does someone own it who can act on it? Would it change a decision if it moved? A measure that fails two of these belongs in the diagnostics, not on the front page.
Use the customer's definitions first
Where a customer scores you, count the measure their way: their promise date, their PPM formula, their definition of an escape. Put your own version beside it only if it tells you something theirs doesn't. When your on-time figure says 96 percent and the customer's portal says 89, the portal wins every argument that matters.
Customer scorecards
A customer's scorecard is the measure that reaches their executives, so treat it as data to manage, not a grade to receive:
- Download it the day it is published and enter its figures on the dashboard's comments the same week.
- Reconcile it with your own records. Portals count a late ASN as a late shipment, or a return you never received; challenge errors through the customer's process within the window they allow.
- Learn how it is weighted. If delivery is half the score, a quality team that only works on PPM will not move it.
- Report it at management review as the customer's number, beside your own, never instead of it.
Write the definition down
Every measure gets one line on the KPI register (AQL-F10): how it is counted, the unit, whether higher or lower is better, the target, how often, who owns it, the source record and where it is reviewed. When a definition has to change, change it at management review, write down the date, and don't join the old trend to the new one as if nothing happened.
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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.