eProcureAI / Platform / Aerospace and aviation
IndustryAerospace procurement carries two obligations at once. Only approved sources may be used, and you must be able to demonstrate that afterwards, per transaction, sometimes years later.
Traceability as a by product. Captured while buying rather than assembled later.
Aerospace suppliers operate under source control. Certain parts and services may only be bought from approved suppliers, within the scope of that approval, with valid certifications at the time of purchase.
Doing that correctly is usually straightforward. Proving it two years later, per transaction, to somebody reviewing your quality system, is where organisations struggle.
The evidence tends to be scattered. The approved supplier list lives in a quality system, the certificates in a folder, the purchase in an accounting system, and the connection between them exists only in the knowledge of whoever placed the order.
When the approved source check happens at the point of order, and the certifications valid at that date are attached to the purchase itself, traceability stops being an exercise. The record already contains what somebody will ask for.
Aerospace programmes commit to items with lead times measured in months. A programme position based on invoiced cost is not merely late, it is missing most of what has actually been committed.
Recording commitment at approval matters more here than almost anywhere, because the gap between commitment and invoice is longest.
With long lead items flagged at the point of request, because lead time affects the programme rather than just the order.
The supplier must be on the approved list and the purchase within the scope of that approval, checked before anything proceeds.
Certificates valid at the order date attached to the purchase itself rather than sitting in a separate folder.
Long lead commitments visible immediately, which matters most where the gap to invoice is measured in months.
The transaction, the source approval and the certificates held together for as long as your obligations require.
Not checked in a separate system and hoped for. If a supplier is not approved for that scope, the order does not proceed without a deliberate, recorded decision.
What matters is not whether a certificate exists now, but whether it was valid when you bought. Attaching it to the purchase is what makes that provable.
With lead times in months, invoiced cost tells a programme manager almost nothing. Committed cost tells them what the programme has actually taken on.
The distinction between them is what a quality review will actually test.
| Situation | What happens | What is recorded |
|---|---|---|
| Approved supplier, in scope | Proceeds normally | Supplier approval and certificates valid at the order date |
| Approved supplier, out of scope | Routed for a deliberate decision | The scope gap and the justification for proceeding |
| Not on the approved list | Blocked, or routed where your process allows | Who approved the exception and why |
| Approval lapsed | New orders stopped, existing commitments continue | The lapse date and any chasing that occurred |
Handling an out of scope purchase deliberately, with the reasoning recorded, is far stronger than a purchase that simply went through unnoticed.
Because it affects the programme schedule as much as the budget.
The gap here is months, which makes invoiced reporting close to meaningless.
Tracked against the order rather than reconciled from correspondence.
Attached to the order so acceptance happens with it.
Recorded on the requirement rather than assumed from the supplier.
Held with the transaction for as long as your obligations require.
The evidence somebody asks for in two years should be created while buying, because it cannot be created afterwards.
Raise the requirement and decide on genuine exceptions. The source check is not their memory test.
Applies source control, ties the evidence to the transaction and keeps the programme current.
We will apply it on the call and run a purchase that should fail the scope check.
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