The engine manufacturer’s group quality procedures did not provide any guidance on how manufacturing personnel were to determine the significance of a non-conformance, from a quality assurance perspective.
On 25 May 2011, Rolls-Royce advised the ATSB that a major corrective action, which arose from an internal major quality investigation, was to remove the existing retrospective concession procedures from their quality system, and replace them with a new Global Process titled Management of Undeclared Non-Conformance in Delivered Product.
The global process was developed to ensure an improved and more consistent approach across the company when it is identified that parts containing undeclared and non-conforming features have been released to the customer for entry into service. The global process includes involvement of quality assurance personnel from the initiation of the process through to its completion.
The global process was incorporated into the engine manufacturer’s quality management system on 4 July 2011.
