Teaching the Aerospace Standards as Subject Matter Experts for BSI

Where this started

Not in a training room. It started in corporate roles at Goodrich Aerospace and at Moog — running value streams, building management systems, improving operations and being audited against the standards rather than explaining them.

That sequence matters more than it should have to. A great deal of standards training is delivered by people whose working experience of the standard is teaching it. The questions that expose the difference are always the specific ones: what do we do about this non-conformance, how do we evidence this clause given how our plant actually works, our customer wants something the standard does not require, who is right. Those get a useful answer from someone who has had to resolve them with a customer on the phone, and a flick back to the slide deck from someone who has not.

When we moved into private practice, that background created an opening: BSI engaged us as subject matter experts to deliver training in the aerospace and defence sectors.

What we taught, and to whom

Through that work we trained delegates from Boeing, Rolls-Royce, GE Aviation, United Technologies, WL Gore, James Walker and Greene Tweed, among others.

To be precise about the relationship, because precision is the point of this practice: these were training engagements delivered as subject matter experts for BSI. The delegates were their people; the teaching was ours.

The subject matter fell into four groups.

The aerospace standards — AS9100, AS9110 and AS9120. Implementation and awareness training across manufacturers, maintenance organisations and distributors. The three standards share a spine and diverge exactly where it matters, and a course built for one audience lands badly on another — a distributor does not perform design or production control, and should not spend a day being taught them.

ISO 37001 and anti-bribery. Driven by a specific commercial need: UK businesses negotiating overseas, often in Middle East markets, needed to demonstrate adequate procedures under the Bribery Act 2010 to customers and to their own boards. The training was built around the decisions those people actually face — agents and intermediaries, commission structures, hospitality during a live tender — rather than around the clauses.

Technical quality tools — APQP, PPAP and First Article Inspection. The mechanics of proving a part and a process are right before volume, and keeping the evidence straight afterwards. This is where aerospace and automotive practice meet and where suppliers working across both sectors most often get caught out, because the vocabulary differs more than the intent does.

Lean and visual management. Doug's side of the practice: value stream mapping, waste identification, standard work, problem solving, and putting performance where people can see it. Taught the way it was learned, which is in front of a process rather than in front of a projector.

The qualifications behind it

Both partners are trained BS EN 9100 Lead Auditors and Six Sigma Black Belts, and have completed the IAQG Aerospace Auditor Transition Training. Both formerly held Aerospace Experienced Auditor authentication with the International Aerospace Quality Group — a grade with precise qualification and experience requirements, conferred and maintained by an Auditor Authentication Body.

That authentication lapses when you leave certification-body work, as ours has, and we say so rather than leaving a present tense in place. The experience it was granted for does not lapse, and it is what the training is built on.

One thing we will not do: lead auditor courses. A lead auditor qualification only carries weight if it comes from an accredited course provider, and we are not one. We would rather say so than sell a certificate that does not do the job.

What this means for a client now

Most of our training today is delivered directly, on a client's own site, using their procedures, their job cards and their real audit findings as the teaching material. Generic examples are a last resort. Courses are facilitated rather than lectured — exercises worked through as a group, with input where it is needed rather than a presentation delivered at the room.

The BSI work is relevant because of what it required: material good enough for delegates from primes who audit their own supply chains for a living, and an instructor who could answer the hard question in the room. That is the standard the training is still built to, whether the delegates come from a prime or from a thirty-person machine shop.

Frequently asked questions

Were these organisations your clients?

They were organisations whose staff we trained as subject matter experts for BSI. The commercial relationship was BSI's; the teaching was ours. We think the distinction matters and we would rather draw it ourselves than have someone else draw it for us.

Do you still deliver through BSI?

Most training now goes directly to clients, on their own sites and against their own processes, which is both more effective and better value for a smaller supplier. Our post on what AS9100 training your team actually needs explains why the large open courses are often more than an SME requires.

Can you train to AS9110 and AS9120 as well as AS9100?

Yes, and they are genuinely different audiences. A maintenance organisation and a distributor need different content from a manufacturer, and our post on AS9120 training for distributors covers where the divergence actually sits.

Why does ISO 37001 training come up for exporters?

Because the Bribery Act 2010 creates a corporate offence where someone acting on your behalf pays a bribe, and the defence is having had adequate procedures in place. Businesses negotiating through agents and intermediaries in overseas markets carry that exposure most directly, and their customers increasingly ask them to evidence it.

We deliver facilitated training in the aerospace standards, ISO 14001, ISO 37001, technical quality tools and lean improvement. See our training services or get in touch.