Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing
Run AS9100 quality, export-controlled data, and full part genealogy on the same system that schedules the floor.
Aerospace ERP software has to do something a general-purpose system never has to: prove, years after the fact, exactly which heat lot of material became which serialized part, who inspected it, against which revision of the drawing, and under whose approval it shipped. WorkCell keeps that record as a by-product of running the job rather than as a separate documentation exercise. Versioned bills of material and routings carry the revision a part was actually built to, operator terminals capture real inspection results and labor at each operation, and every lot and serial stays linked from receiving through final shipment. The same database schedules the floor, so a late customer-furnished part reshuffles the plan instead of quietly breaking a promised delivery date.
Tier 1, 2, and 3 suppliers building to prime contractor prints, plus defense subcontractors and MRO shops working under flow-down requirements from primes and the Department of Defense.
| Standard | What It Requires |
|---|---|
| AS9100 | Aerospace quality management built on ISO 9001 with added requirements for configuration management, risk, counterfeit part prevention, and first article inspection. |
| ISO 9001 | The quality management foundation AS9100 extends, covering document control, corrective action, and management review. |
| ITAR | Technical data for defense articles on the US Munitions List must be restricted to authorized persons, with access controlled and auditable. |
| NIST 800-171 | Controlled unclassified information in a contractor's systems must be protected across 110 security requirements covering access control, audit, and media protection. |
| CMMC | Defense contractors handling controlled unclassified information must demonstrate maturity against NIST 800-171 through third-party assessment. |
Material arrives against a receipt that records its lot and mill certification. Every issue to a job keeps the link, so a finished serial number resolves backward to the exact heat lot, the operator who ran each operation, the inspection results recorded against it, and the drawing revision in effect at the time. A containment question that would otherwise take a week of binder archaeology becomes a query.
Balloon-to-characteristic inspection results captured at the operation rather than transcribed later, with the drawing revision and material lot already attached.
Generated from the job record, tying the shipped quantity to its lots, serials, and completed inspections.
Mill certs stored against the receiving lot so they follow the material into every job it feeds, instead of living in a supplier email thread.
Severity-classified nonconformances with disposition, containment, and the 8-D corrective action that closed them.
The dimensional results live in one spreadsheet, the material cert in a PDF folder, the drawing revision in the engineer's head, and the operator sign-off on a paper traveler. Building one AS9102 packet takes days of reconciliation, and every revision of the part starts the scavenger hunt over again.
When a prime asks which parts used a suspect heat lot, the answer comes from pulling travelers out of a filing cabinet and matching them against receiving logs. The data exists, but it was never connected, so a containment question becomes a week of work and an uncomfortable phone call.
Drawings and specifications covered by ITAR end up on a network share or in an email chain, where access is governed by convention rather than by the system. Proving who could see what, and when, is nearly impossible after the fact.
A spreadsheet plan assumes the customer-furnished material arrives on time and the five-axis is free when the job reaches it. Neither holds. Without finite scheduling, one late forging quietly pushes a delivery that nobody notices until the prime does.
Lot and serial traceability through the whole build
Receiving records the lot and its certification, issues to a job preserve the link, and completions assign serials. The genealogy is maintained by the transactions themselves, so aerospace traceability holds without anyone maintaining a parallel log.
Inspection, nonconformance, and corrective action in one loop
AQL sampling plans and inspection templates drive what gets checked. Failures raise a severity-classified nonconformance, and systemic issues escalate into an 8-D corrective action, with the whole chain attached to the job it came from.
Versioned BOMs and routings with effective dating
Every bill of material and routing carries a revision and an effective date, so a job built last quarter still shows the structure it was actually built to. Changes supersede rather than overwrite, which is what configuration control in aerospace requires.
Finite scheduling against real constraints
The scheduler plans against actual machine and labor capacity rather than infinite capacity, and proposal runs let a planner test a sequence before committing it. When a forging slips, you see which deliveries move before you promise anything.
Shop floor terminals that capture the record
Operators clock on to an operation, record quantities and scrap, and enter inspection results at the machine. The traceability and the cost record come from the same entry, so the floor is not doing paperwork twice.
Role-based access over controlled data
Permissions are enforced per role at the data layer, with tenant isolation and single sign-on, so access to drawings and specifications is governed by the system and leaves an audit trail rather than resting on folder conventions.
Versioned BOMs and routings carrying the revision a part was actually built to.
InventoryLot and serial traceability from receiving through shipment, with QC hold states.
QualityAQL inspections, severity-classified nonconformances, and 8-D corrective action.
ProductionFinite scheduling and operator terminals capturing results at the machine.
Quoting, engineering, inventory, scheduling, shop floor, and job costing on one database.
MESOperator terminals that capture actuals, inspection results, and status at the operation.
QMSInspections, nonconformances, and 8-D corrective action tied to the job that produced them.
APSFinite capacity scheduling for low-volume, long-lead-time builds.
Precision machining shops running high-mix, low-volume work to customer prints.
Tier SuppliersSuppliers working under prime contractor flow-downs, releases, and schedules.
AS9100What the standard requires and which records WorkCell keeps for it.
NuclearComparable traceability depth under 10 CFR 50 Appendix B and NQA-1.
What is aerospace ERP software?
Aerospace ERP software runs quoting, engineering, inventory, scheduling, production, and quality on one database, with the traceability and configuration control that AS9100 and prime contractor flow-downs require. The difference from general ERP is that the quality record and the part genealogy are first-class, not bolted on.
Does WorkCell support AS9100 compliance?
WorkCell supports the records AS9100 asks you to keep: controlled document revisions, inspection results tied to operations, severity-classified nonconformances, 8-D corrective actions, and lot and serial traceability. Certification is granted to your company by an accredited registrar, not to the software.
Can WorkCell produce AS9102 first article inspection reports?
Inspection characteristics are recorded at the operation against the drawing revision in effect, with the material lot already linked. That turns the first article packet into an export of existing records rather than a manual reconciliation across spreadsheets, PDFs, and paper travelers.
How does WorkCell handle ITAR-controlled data in aerospace and defense work?
Access is enforced by role at the data layer with tenant isolation and single sign-on, so visibility of drawings and specifications is controlled by the system and auditable. Your own ITAR registration, authorized-person determinations, and export authorizations remain your responsibility.
Can I trace an aerospace part's serial number back to its raw material heat lot?
Yes. Receiving captures the lot and its mill certification, issues to a job preserve that link, and completions assign serials. A serial number resolves backward through every operation, operator, and inspection to the heat lot it came from.
Is WorkCell a good fit for a small aerospace machine shop?
It is built for discrete and mixed-mode manufacturers from roughly ten to a thousand employees, which covers most tier 2 and tier 3 aerospace suppliers. High-mix, low-volume work with heavy traceability requirements is the case the system is designed around.
See it run on your parts.
Tell us how your shop runs today and we will tell you straight whether WorkCell is a fit.