Entering the Aerospace Supply Chain: What Matters Even Before Certification
In an industry where there is no margin for error, certification is not always the first gateway. When a component is used in an aircraft, it must be qualified—that is, verified and approved—within the quality system of the company using it, whether an original equipment manufacturer or a Tier 1 supplier. In many cases, the customer operates under an AS9100-certified quality management system and incorporates components manufactured by suppliers that have not yet obtained certification themselves. Mollificio Valli, which has been manufacturing springs and metal components for the automotive industry since 1965, already supplies two aerospace customers through this process while continuing to pursue its own direct certification.
Why AS9100 Certification Is Not Always Mandatory for Aerospace Suppliers
The aerospace supply chain is structured in tiers: major original equipment manufacturers, Tier 1 suppliers delivering complete systems and subassemblies, and subsequent tiers producing components and carrying out specialised processes. Each tier has different requirements, and not every supplier is required to hold the same type of certification. AS9100 is not a legal requirement. It is a contractual requirement imposed by customers to ensure a consistent quality management system throughout the supply chain. ISO 9001, on which AS9100 is based, may still provide a sufficient foundation for supplier qualification in many cases, particularly when a component becomes part of a larger assembly covered by the customer’s certified quality system. This is exactly what currently happens at Mollificio Valli: two aerospace customers integrate its springs into their certified systems, verifying and approving each component within their own processes even before Mollificio Valli obtains direct certification.
Companies reaching this stage of the supply chain with a mature quality system already in place have a clear advantage. Mollificio Valli is certified to IATF 16949, the benchmark quality standard for the automotive industry, which shares much of its underlying framework with AS9100. Both standards are based on ISO 9001, and both require a risk-based approach designed to prevent problems rather than correct them after they occur. In the automotive industry, this approach involves tools such as FMEA—the systematic analysis of everything that could potentially fail in a component before a failure occurs—and statistical process control throughout every stage of production. These capabilities remain essential in aerospace, although AS9100 adds industry-specific requirements such as configuration management and counterfeit parts prevention.
The Expertise Required to Supply Critical Aerospace Components
Mollificio Valli’s everyday automotive production includes components intended for safety-related functions, such as springs for steering systems and safety valves. These parts allow no margin for error: they are subject to 100% inspection and fatigue testing to ensure their reliability over time, cycle after cycle. The same level of rigour is required of aerospace suppliers, where material traceability, process repeatability and dimensional inspection are not additional benefits but the minimum conditions a company must meet to be considered as a potential supplier. Seventy per cent of Mollificio Valli’s production equipment is CNC-controlled. This foundation also enables rapid prototyping when an aerospace project requires different versions to be validated before series production begins.
Mollificio Valli’s Path Towards AS9100 Certification
Mollificio Valli has formally begun its journey towards AS9100 certification and has joined the Piedmont Aerospace Cluster, a network that brings together companies operating in the industry alongside major players such as Leonardo, Avio Aero, Thales Alenia Space and Collins Aerospace. Membership provides opportunities to take part in technical working groups and projects with companies that shape the industry from within, rather than observing it from the outside. Certification has not yet been achieved, and it is important to state this clearly. It is a path Mollificio Valli has undertaken with the same disciplined approach that has guided the production of its automotive components for more than half a century. After all, this is how trust is built within the aerospace supply chain: not by presenting a certificate before the work has been done, but through expertise already demonstrated in other demanding industries and verified audit after audit.
