Nadcap Special Process Compliance Software
Generate the traceability, routing, and inspection evidence a Nadcap audit demands. Lot and serial genealogy, routing-enforced specs, NDT records, and 8-D CAPA.
Nadcap (National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program) is an industry-managed accreditation for the special processes that make or break aerospace parts, such as heat treating, chemical processing, welding, nondestructive testing, and coatings. Run by the Performance Review Institute (PRI) on behalf of an aerospace prime council, it matters because primes like Boeing, Airbus, GE, and Rolls-Royce flow Nadcap accreditation down as a hard requirement: lose it on a special process and you lose the work. WorkCell is not itself Nadcap accredited, but its traceability, routing, inspection, and document controls give your special-process shop the objective evidence a Nadcap audit demands.
Sound Familiar?
Special-process records scattered across paper travelers
Your heat-treat charts, pyrometry surveys, plating tank logs, and weld parameter sheets live in binders and on operator clipboards, so when a Nadcap auditor asks to trace a furnace run back to a specific lot and job, your team spends a day reconstructing the paper trail instead of pulling it in one query.
No link between the job and the qualified process spec
The customer flows down a specific Boeing, GE, or AMS spec and revision for the special process, but your traveler just says heat treat or anodize, so there is no enforced link proving the operator ran the accredited process to the right revision, and a Nadcap finding writes you up for a missing process control.
NDT and inspection results disconnected from the part genealogy
Penetrant, magnetic particle, radiographic, and ultrasonic results sit in a standalone log while serial and lot genealogy lives somewhere else, so demonstrating that every shipped serial passed its required nondestructive testing becomes a manual cross-reference that auditors distrust.
Corrective actions that never close before the next audit
Nadcap audits are merit-based: clean closures shorten your re-audit interval, while open or recurring findings shorten it the other way, yet your corrective actions stall in spreadsheets with copy-pasted root causes and no effectiveness check, so the same nonconformance resurfaces at the next checklist review.
Core Capabilities
End-to-end lot and serial traceability
Every heat, lot, and serial tracks from receiving through ship with material certs attached at the lot level and QC hold states gating movement, so the full genealogy from a shipped part back to the special-process job and the incoming mill cert is one query, exactly the chain of custody a Nadcap auditor walks.
Routing-enforced process specs
Multi-level versioned routings pin each operation to the qualified process spec and revision the customer flowed down, with operation-level resource and costing, so a heat-treat, plating, or weld step cannot run against a superseded baseline and the traveler proves the accredited process was followed.
AQL inspection and NDT templates
AQL inspection templates and multi-type inspections capture dimensional, penetrant, magnetic particle, radiographic, and ultrasonic results against the operation that produced them, so nondestructive testing evidence stays linked to the serial and lot instead of living in a separate NDT log.
NCR and 8-D CAPA with severity matrix
Nonconformances open from inspection failures or audit findings, route through an NCR severity matrix into 8-D corrective action with root cause, containment, and effectiveness verification, and link to supplier quality, giving you the closed-loop CAPA record that keeps your Nadcap merit status and re-audit interval favorable.
Operation-level MES with operator sign-off
Hierarchical work orders drive an operator and terminal MES where each special-process operation captures who ran it, on which resource, and with which labor ticket, so furnace runs, plating cycles, and weld passes carry a timestamped electronic record instead of an initialed paper traveler.
Engineering change control and audit-ready evidence
Engineering change control runs through BOM and routing versioning with effective dating, and every traveler, inspection, NCR, and cert is queryable by part, lot, supplier, job, or date range, so when an auditor asks for objective evidence on a checklist item you pull it from one system instead of chasing shared drives.
By The Numbers
Nadcap-accredited supplier sites worldwide managed through the Performance Review Institute
Performance Review Institute (PRI)
Nadcap audits conducted each year against detailed special-process checklists
Performance Review Institute (PRI)
Global aerospace and defense industry revenue in 2024, the supply chains where Nadcap special-process accreditation is flowed down as a hard requirement
Deloitte Global Aerospace and Defense Industry Outlook
Connected Modules
Quality
AQL inspections, NDT results, NCRs with a severity matrix, and 8-D CAPA live as first-class objects tied to the lots, serials, and operations they govern.
Shop Floor
Operator and terminal MES captures who ran each special-process operation, on which resource, and against which routing revision, producing a timestamped electronic traveler.
Engineering
Versioned BOMs and routings establish the process specs and revisions that work orders lock against, with effective dating for engineering change control.
Common Questions
What is Nadcap?
Nadcap, the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program, is an industry-managed accreditation for special processes whose quality is hard to verify by inspecting the finished part, including heat treating, chemical processing, coatings, welding, and nondestructive testing. It is administered by the Performance Review Institute (PRI) on behalf of a council of aerospace primes, and accreditation is granted against detailed, process-specific audit checklists rather than a single generic standard.
Who needs Nadcap accreditation?
Suppliers that perform special processes for aerospace and defense programs need Nadcap accreditation when a prime such as Boeing, Airbus, GE Aerospace, Rolls-Royce, or Lockheed Martin flows the requirement down through its supply chain. If your shop heat treats, plates, anodizes, welds, or runs NDT on flight or defense hardware, your customer contract almost certainly requires the relevant Nadcap accreditation for that commodity.
How is Nadcap different from AS9100?
AS9100 is a broad aerospace quality management system standard covering your whole organization, while Nadcap is process-specific accreditation for individual special processes audited against their own technical checklists. Most aerospace suppliers hold AS9100 for the overall QMS and add Nadcap accreditation for each special process they perform, since the two requirements are complementary, not interchangeable.
Who issues and manages Nadcap accreditation?
Nadcap is operated by the Performance Review Institute (PRI), a not-for-profit affiliate of SAE International, on behalf of the aerospace primes that own the program. Auditors assess your special process against the applicable Nadcap audit checklist, and an industry task group of subscriber primes reviews the results before accreditation is granted or renewed.
How does WorkCell help us prepare for a Nadcap audit?
WorkCell is not itself Nadcap accredited, but its features generate the objective evidence auditors require: end-to-end lot and serial traceability, routings that pin each operation to a qualified process spec and revision, AQL and NDT inspection records linked to the producing operation, operator-level MES sign-off, and closed-loop NCR and 8-D CAPA. When an auditor asks you to trace a serial back through its special-process job and certs, you pull it from one system in seconds.
How long is Nadcap accreditation valid?
Nadcap accreditation is merit-based, so the re-audit interval depends on your audit performance: clean audits with timely, effective corrective action lengthen the interval toward 12 to 24 months, while findings or recurring nonconformances shorten it. Keeping NCRs closed with verified effectiveness, which WorkCell tracks through its 8-D CAPA workflow, is the most direct way to protect a favorable cycle.
Nadcap Special Process Compliance Software
Walk your next Nadcap auditor through one system instead of a binder.