A number of ECAC States have an ISO 9000 QMS in place. Isn’t this sufficient?
Quality Management Systems (QMS) are a great achievement in support of business improvement. As such, they are very helpful for the AIS function. However, the scope for CHAIN is wider and will not necessarily be covered by local quality procedures. QMS, in general, requires “suppliers” providing input into certified organisations to be audited regularly. This is an important requirement but what is unclear now is to which standards such audits are to be performed. CHAIN aims to provide an automated process across various functions, in support of the transfer of digital data along the data supply chain, enabling full traceability. Thus, a Service Level Agreement needs to be in place to specify the conditions of data exchange. It will also describe principles which may be applied during later auditing, as required.
