Certificate Management / Quality System Audit (QSA) of Production Approval Holders
Overview
What is the QSA of Production Approval Holders?
The QSA is one component of the certificate management process. The QSA is utilized to determine if Federal Aviation Administration production approval holders, their priority parts suppliers, and delegated facilities are complying with applicable regulations and the procedures established to meet these regulations.
As an element of the Aircraft Certifications Service's continued Operational Safety Process, the QSA process also surveys the application of standard industry practices to identify national trends that may require the development of new or revised regulations, policy, or guidance.
How is this program used?
It is used to evaluate the actual operating practices of production approval holder and delegated facilities against the Code of Federal Regulations, FAA-approved data, and the facility's internal procedures.
Any inconsistency discovered is categorized and recorded. This data is provided to the production approval holder or delegated facility at the conclusion of the evaluation and analyzed annually for trends.
QSA procedures and team leader/member roles and responsibilities are documented in FAA Order 8120.23, Certificate Management of Production Approval Holders.