Today’s aviation, defense, and space organizations navigate three converging trends: faster technology adoption, increasingly distributed supply chains, and rising expectations for risk-based oversight. Together, these forces dictate how organizations view and update their quality management practices. As a result, industry attention is shifting toward more continuous methods for maintaining requirements, strengthening high-risk controls, and using audit and performance data to guide improvement.

Responding to these pressures requires a strategic shift in how standards are maintained and deployed. This could include shorter update cycles, more targeted requirements, or clearer measurement approaches that improve comparability across suppliers and regions. Within the International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG), recent work has focused on revisiting specific parts of the 91XX (9100, 9110, and 9120) series, exploring alternative revision paths for standard writing, and expanding the use of certification data for trend analysis.

A More Agile Approach to Standard Revisions

Traditionally, updating global standards has been a slow process, often constrained by supporting scheme revision cycles. Recognizing the need for greater agility, IAQG introduced a dual-track approach for standards revision:

• Incremental Revision: Targeted updates that keep the standard relevant between major revisions, sharpening focus on risk management and supplier oversight.
• Full Revision: A comprehensive update that integrates emerging priorities such as cybersecurity, counterfeit part prevention, and advanced product quality planning.

A dual-track approach ensures improvements reach the market faster without compromising rigor and reinforces how standards should lead industry progress, not follow it. Current aerospace programs demand agility to operate due to tight schedules and global supply chains. Standards that evolve once a decade are no longer sufficient to support the environment. By piloting a series of new processes, IAQG enables a more responsive approach to updating standards. This shift in mindset allows for future standards to have a range of update possibilities, including quarterly or biannual updates for small changes, annual updates for moderate changes, and biennial updates for significant changes versus relying on a traditional five-year approach. A fully implemented dual-track approach positions standards to remain aligned with current industry needs and challenges while keeping pace with the speed of industry itself.

Supporting Diverse Organizations

A strong supply chain exists when every participant thrives and meets quality expectations, contributing to a collective success. In ASD, large, complex organizations have long held 9100 certifications, as the foundation for operating, however, startups, niche manufacturers, or make-to-print providers often encounter barriers for certification at this level. IAQG addresses this gap by focusing on the needs of these smaller organizations. Scheduled to be released later this year, IA9150 standard is a streamlined, certifiable quality management system, specifically for this group of organizations.

Costs and the administrative requirements for a full 9100 certification are typically identified as additional obstacles for these less complex organizations. Yet they provide specialized components or niche capabilities that play a critical role in aerospace programs. IA9150 enables smaller organizations to demonstrate quality without being subject to the same tier of requirements designed for global enterprises. Establishing a robust set of standards, tools, and guidance that foster a diverse industry contributes significantly to the overall strength and resilience of the sector. 

Transforming Data into Value

Historically, audit reports were viewed primarily as compliance documents, indicating an organization’s adherence to standards but offered little guidance for ongoing improvement or relative performance when compared to other industry participants. Shifting this approach by transforming audit data into actionable intelligence was the basis for the 2025 release of OASIS Insights™. Through the singular repository for all aviation, space and defense 9100 certifications, OASIS Insights provides organizations with audit data that benchmarks their performance, identifies trends, and drives continuous improvement.

With OASIS Insights available to all 91XX (9100, 9110, and 9120) certified organizations, compliance is the starting point for what’s next. Organization audit data no longer sits stagnant but can actively inform strategic decision-making and long-term performance evaluation. And with the recently released pre-audit Insights report, organizations can confirm that operations are as they should be, anticipate compliance discussion points, and address gaps before an audit occurs. For the first time ever, a certified organization understands how its quality management system performance compares to the industry as a whole and to other similar organizations. They receive a quantitative performance score, a detailed analysis of the findings received, and an artificial intelligence-generated summary that highlights key areas of risk and provides recommendations. The IAQG certification scheme is the only scheme in the world to offer that level of insight.

Actionable data doesn’t stop at the organization level but also provides opportunities at the industry level. Anonymized data is collected through advanced business intelligence tools within the IAQG to spot trends and gaps as they emerge, delivering targeted, real value. Data supports the management of its scheme and serves as a catalyst for progress, with that progress translating into real-world impact. Additionally, IAQG data can outline the activities and performance of key participants, including certification bodies and auditors, thereby enhancing the capability to manage the scheme. Knowledge backed by data is a powerful combination for stronger decision-making.

Continuous Improvement as a Core Principle

The ASD industry demands more than incremental improvement; it demands leadership. Every IAQG initiative, from accelerating standard updates to addressing gaps in the industry and launching data-driven tools, reflects a commitment to raising the bar for quality worldwide.

The IAQG objective is not merely to maintain standards, but to redefine them. This approach is critical because aerospace is not static. New and evolving technologies, such as additive manufacturing, advanced composites, and digital twins, are reshaping how products are designed, built, and maintained. At the same time, supply chains are becoming more complex, and regulatory environments continue to evolve.

In this environment, standards must keep pace with these changes and, where possible, anticipate them. That means those who author the standards and manage schemes, such as the IAQG, do not take a passive approach to quality, but engage with stakeholders across the value chain, listening to emerging concerns, and translating those insights into actionable guidance.

Quality professionals have long embraced continuous improvement, pushing beyond traditional boundaries and exploring innovative methods for managing quality systems. This is, in its simplest terms, thinking differently about quality. One must always consider how the industry can advance in managing quality systems methods, without bypassing requirements. This includes approaches to reduce operational costs, improve product quality, and strengthen controls for high-risk activities, while reducing (where feasible) non-critical requirements.

Driving Progress Through Collaboration

Meaningful progress occurs when voices from across the industry come together and allow collective solutions to present themselves. Practical tools, such as standards, certifications and audit data shaped by real-world experience, offer a way forward that continues to invest in international relationships, supplier forums, global committee working groups, and digital collaboration platforms.

Continuous improvement remains an essential principle for the aerospace industry. Across OEMs, tier-one suppliers, and small manufacturers, the commitment to advancing quality is what drives meaningful progress. The IAQG’s collaborative approach serves as an example of how industry-wide engagement and data-driven standards can help organizations adapt to evolving technologies and challenges, ensuring that quality is not static but evolves to support innovation and resilience.

By fostering collaboration, leveraging actionable data, and continually refining standards, the industry can shape a safer, stronger, and more resilient future for all stakeholders. Then, compliance becomes not just a requirement, but an opportunity for leadership.