The ASA Accreditation Program (ASAAP) is a 36 month audit program based on the ASA-100 Standard. The standard was created to comply with the FAA Advisory Circular (AC) 00-56A, the Voluntary Industry Distributor Accreditation Program. ASA-100 emphasizes issues such as impartiality, competence, and reliability - all specific to the regulated needs of the aerospace industry. ASA's experienced auditors have all worked for air carriers and have extensive experience in the aviation regulations and industry business practices.


History of ASAAP
On September 5, 1996, the FAA published Advisory Circular (AC) 00-56, titled, "Voluntary Industry Distributor Accreditation Program." The purpose of this Advisory Circular was to describe an accreditation system for civil aircraft parts distributors on the basis of voluntary industry oversight and provide information useful for developing an accreditation program. As a strong proponent of the voluntary accreditation program, the Aviation Suppliers Association assisted the FAA in writing AC 00-56, and, as a result, developed its own quality system standard, ASA-100.The ASA-100 Quality System Standard has since become the leading quality system standard under FAA AC-0056A.


The Audit Process
The ASA Accreditation Program is a 36 month program with two surveillance audits during that 36 month period for newly accredited companies. Re-accreditation occurs every 36 months thereafter and re-accreditation only requires one midterm surveillance audit. The ASA-100 Standard emphasizes issues such as impartiality, competence, and reliability all specific to the regulated needs of the aerospace industry. ASA has carefully defined the procedures within ASA-100 to assure that aircraft parts distributors can adopt appropriate aerospace practices. In addition, the Aviation Suppliers Association has a staff of seasoned auditors with aviation auditing experience. The auditors have all worked for air carriers and have extensive experience in the aviation regulations and industry business practices associated with air carriers, repair stations, manufacturers and, of course, distributors. The FAA and the industry have worked hard to make FAA AC 00-56A effective at providing operators, repair stations and manufacturers with a tool for gauging their business partners quality system.