Business Central for aerospace parts makers and suppliers

Traceability in Business Central for aerospace parts

You receive bar, plate, forgings and castings with the mill heat or supplier batch as the lot number. The mill certificate attaches to the receipt. When a production order uses that material, the link from raw lot to finished serial or lot is made for you.

Say a customer asks what went into a part. Item tracing answers in moments. The same lookup works the other way when a supplier reports a problem with a heat. Shelf-life items such as sealants and adhesives carry expiration dates. Expired lots stay out of picks.

Heat treat, plating and testing at outside processors

Few shops do every special process in house, so a routing can include outside steps for heat treatment, coating, plating or non-destructive testing. Each step ties to a subcontract work center and an approved vendor. Releasing the order creates the purchase lines for those steps.

Parts leave and return against the purchase order. So you always know where they are. The processor's charge lands in the cost of the job. You attach the processor's certificate on receipt. Limiting a step to processors that a customer approved needs an extension or a quality add-on. Vendor approval by customer is not standard.

Drawing revisions and customer needs in Business Central for aerospace

A part number alone is not enough. The order states a drawing revision and a list of customer quality clauses. Those clauses flow down to suppliers. Also, production BOM and routing versions hold what to build for each revision. A small extension adds the revision and clause codes as fields on sales and purchase lines.

Because of those fields, the traveler for the shop floor shows the revision and clauses. Purchase orders to processors repeat them. The work is modest. Even so, it removes the hand-written notes and separate clause sheets that cause findings at audit.

First articles, inspection and conformance certificates

Business Central can hold stock in an inspection bin. Then it can block a lot until someone clears it and record who released it. However, dimensional results, first article forms, nonconformance reports and corrective actions go beyond the standard product. They belong in a quality app or a dedicated quality system.

The certificate of conformance that ships with the parts is a report layout we build on the posted shipment. It pulls the part, revision, order, lot or serial numbers and the statement your customers require. You can also gather supporting certificates into the same pack.

What Business Central for aerospace does not do alone

Be wary of anyone who says an ERP makes you compliant with an aerospace quality standard or with export control rules. But those depend on your procedures, training and records. Instead, the software helps with permissions, history and traceability. We set it up to match the procedures you already have. That way, Business Central supports an aerospace quality system rather than replacing it.

Firms that handle export-controlled technical data should ask their compliance adviser which cloud setup is acceptable. So do that before you choose between Business Central online and on-premises. Maintenance, repair and overhaul work has teardown and variable scope. A specialist add-on is usually the better answer there.

Business Central for aerospace: supplier questions

Is Business Central for aerospace suitable for an AS9100 shop?

It can serve as the ERP inside such a quality system. It gives you traceability, controlled bills and routings, and purchasing records. But it does not supply the quality procedures or the audit. Shops usually pair it with a quality app for inspection, nonconformance and corrective action records. We help you decide which records belong in which tool, so nothing falls between them.

Can it manage government or prime contractor contracts?

You can run long contracts as projects with tasks, budgets and billing. Meanwhile, the parts are made on production orders linked to them. Cost-type government contracts bring extra accounting rules. Our government contractors page explains them. We set up the project side and the production side together, so cost flows to the right contract.

How does it handle customer-furnished material?

You receive material that the customer supplies at zero cost. Put it in a dedicated location or give it a distinct item. Track it by lot and consume it on the production order. That keeps quantity control and traceability. Also, it keeps value off your balance sheet for material you do not own. Your auditors will like that clean separation.

Do distributors of aerospace parts need Premium?

No. Distributors who buy, store and ship without making parts can use Essentials. It includes lot and serial tracking, expiration dates, bins and document attachments. You need Premium once production orders and routings come into play. You also need it for service management on repaired units. We can check which license fits your mix of work.

Can we quote complex machined parts in it?

A sales quote with a copied bill and routing gives a cost roll-up. That suits repeat work. But estimating new parts from features, material and cycle assumptions is not standard. Shops that quote a lot use an estimating add-on. It turns a won quote into the production order. Then we can help you choose one and connect it to your items.

Related pages for aerospace suppliers

Aerospace work overlaps with job shop scheduling, tracked material and outside processing. These pages explain those building blocks. The quality control page lists the inspection options. Read them first if you are new to the topic. Then we can walk through how Business Central for aerospace fits your shop, your customers and your paperwork. For the product detail, see Microsoft's guide to subcontracting manufacturing.