{"id":6909,"date":"2026-05-19T06:42:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T06:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rapidcision.com\/?p=6909"},"modified":"2026-06-08T19:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T19:34:12","slug":"nadcap-cnc-suppliers-aerospace-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rapidcision.com\/pt\/nadcap-cnc-suppliers-aerospace-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"NADCAP for CNC Suppliers: What Aerospace Procurement Engineers Verify in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

For an aerospace procurement engineer qualifying a CNC supplier for a Tier-1 Boeing or Lockheed flow-down, accepting AS9100D as proof of capability on a part that touches a special process is a $250,000\u2013$1.2M risk. The certificate proves the quality management system. It does not prove that the heat treat, the NDT, the chemical processing, the welding, or the nonconventional machining inside the supplier’s process tree is itself controlled to aerospace standard. That control lives in NADCAP, and a CNC supplier without NADCAP on the special processes they perform \u2014 or without a documented NADCAP-accredited subcontract chain for the ones they outsource \u2014 is a supplier who will get caught at first-article inspection. At Rapid Precision, roughly one in five new aerospace RFQs we audit show this gap, and the cost of fixing it after PO is always higher than catching it before.<\/span><\/p>\n

NADCAP \u2014 Nadcap, formally \u2014 is the Performance Review Institute’s aerospace and defense accreditation program for special processes. AS9100D is the umbrella QMS. NADCAP is the process-by-process accreditation that sits underneath it. For a CNC procurement engineer, the difference between the two is the difference between knowing a shop has a system and knowing the specific processes inside that system are audited. This guide walks aerospace procurement through the seven NADCAP checks that separate a supplier with the right accreditation footprint from one whose AS9100 wallpaper does not cover the actual flow-down.<\/span><\/p>\n

What Is NADCAP, and How Does It Differ From AS9100?<\/b><\/h2>\n

NADCAP is administered by the Performance Review Institute<\/a> (PRI) and accredits suppliers on 17 special process families through individually scoped audit checklists. AS9100D is the aerospace quality management system standard maintained by the IAQG; it certifies the overall organization. The two are not interchangeable. A CNC shop with AS9100D and no NADCAP can absolutely run a quality system, but it cannot self-certify a heat treat, a non-destructive test, a chemical etch, or a precision shot peen to aerospace prime standards. Those processes are accredited at the process level, not the company level.<\/span><\/p>\n

For CNC suppliers specifically, the NADCAP<\/a> checklists that matter most are:<\/span><\/p>\n