Me at home: ‘Honey, where’s the ketchup, did you finish it?’ Wife: ‘It’s in the fridge’ Me: ‘I looked, it’s not there’ The sound of pounding footsteps on a mission are heard marching to the fridge, whereupon an impressive and commanding opening swing of the door is given, the wife’s hand swivels like a whip, tip towards the now mysteriously reappeared bottle of ketchup and voila, there it is. I bow and kiss her backhand then meekishly apply the condiment. Occasionally solutions to our problems a...

I detect that I have set a new personal record (woohoo!) for the amount of acronyms in a blog article title at four. If you’re reading this, you probably already have a good handle on what they mean, but more on that later. Before we get started I wanted to make a suggestion to those of you who are responsible for maintaining those pesky Approved Supplier Lists required by nearly all quality standards. Many of you give automatic approval to firms who are accredited, for example, to the ASA-100, ...

It has been 22 years since the ATA Spec 106 was updated, and it is now at revision 2023.1. The proper and full name of this document is ATA Specification 106, Sources & Approved Parts Qualification Guidelines (herein ‘the spec’). In this article the following will be presented: Common misconceptions Interesting facts about the spec What has changed with the Form? Use of the form to comply with the ASA-100 Continuing issues with the form and specification The ASA Statement Form COMMON MISCONCEPT...

Last year the ASA recorded 41 Repeat Findings during audits. What behaviors (or lack thereof) contribute to the likelihood of new or repeat findings? I was recently in a hotel listening to the local news broadcast. An area leader was celebrating the now wide-spread availability of Narcan in the community, Narcan being the medication used to help save those who are experiencing an opioid overdose. Narcan has been very successful in bringing down the rate of deaths due to opioid overdoses. In the ...

A banal cliché overheard during political campaigns is ‘working together’. I figuratively roll my eyes at the lack of creativity in that diluted, overused utterance. Fortunately, despite cynics, there really are examples in governance where that term bore fruit. Every government organization has its head; the Administrator, or Director for example. An oft heard refrain among those leaders is that the goals of the organization can’t be met without the active participation of industry; in other wo...