Wichita, Kansas
AS9100 and ISO consulting for Wichita companies.
Aerospace suppliers usually need AS9100 or AS9120. Other manufacturers and organizations typically start with ISO 9001 and often add ISO 14001 or 45001. And every company certified to ISO 9001:2015 now needs a plan for the 2026 transition. We help with all of it, starting from what your customers actually require.
We are an active member of the Wichita Manufacturers Association, and we work on-site in Wichita whenever the work calls for it. If you see us at a WMA meeting, please come and introduce yourself. We would love to get to know you and your business.
Why AS9100 matters so much in Wichita
Few US metros run on aerospace the way Wichita does. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 107 aerospace product and parts establishments in the Wichita metro, about 16 times the national concentration (QCEW, 2024), and roughly 30,400 people working in aerospace product and parts manufacturing in August 2026, more than half of the metro's 53,900 manufacturing jobs (BLS, preliminary).
That shapes what quality work means here. A machine shop, finisher or composites shop that wants to grow is usually growing into an aerospace program, and the program arrives with flow-down: AS9100, first article inspection, controlled special processes, and a customer who checks your certificate in OASIS before your first order.
The supply base is mostly small. The metro has 609 manufacturing establishments, and 530 of them employ fewer than 100 people (US Census County Business Patterns, 2023). Most have no quality department. An AS9100 system that only works with one has failed before the auditor arrives.
Industry in Wichita
- Boeing Wichita (formerly Spirit AeroSystems) Boeing completed its acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems on December 8, 2025; 737 fuselage production is in Wichita
- Textron Aviation Headquartered in Wichita; the Cessna and Beechcraft brands
- Bombardier Wichita has been Bombardier's US headquarters since 2022: flight test, a service center and Bombardier Defense
- Airbus Americas Engineering Center On Wichita State University's Innovation Campus
- Wichita State University NIAR The National Institute for Aviation Research: research, testing, certification and training for aerospace and manufacturing, established in 1985
- Bosch, Wichita HVAC plant The former Johnson Controls/York plant, about 1,300 Wichita-area employees in October 2025: ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 territory rather than AS9100
Boeing Wichita and the Spirit AeroSystems integration
Boeing completed its acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems on December 8, 2025, bringing Spirit's commercial and aftermarket operations in Wichita into Boeing. Boeing's announcement showed 737 fuselage production in Wichita, and local outlets reported in May 2026 that Boeing plans to invest $1 billion in its Wichita operations over three years.
We will not speak for Boeing's supplier requirements, and nobody outside Boeing should. What we can say is practical. When a major customer changes owner, supplier quality terms, portals and approvals are among the things that get reviewed. If you supply that site, keep the quality clauses on your current purchase orders under review, and make sure your system answers the terms you are working to now rather than the ones you were first approved against.
When ISO 9001, 14001 or 45001 is the right answer
Not every Wichita manufacturer needs AS9100, and not every aerospace customer requires it from every supplier. Some primes publish tiered supplier conditions in which the baseline tier asks for ISO 9001 and only the higher tiers require AS9100. Read the quality clause on the purchase order before you buy a more expensive certificate than the customer asked for.
Wichita also manufactures well beyond aircraft. The Bosch HVAC plant, formerly Johnson Controls' York operation, employed about 1,300 people in the Wichita area in October 2025, and plants like it are ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 territory. Kansas has no OSHA-approved State Plan, so private-sector workplaces fall under federal OSHA, and environmental permits run through the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Both shape the legal register an ISO 14001 or 45001 system is built on.
It is not only manufacturers. We also support service, technology and laboratory organizations with ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 17025, companies adopting AI in inspection, maintenance or scheduling with ISO/IEC 42001, and any company certified to ISO 9001:2015 through its transition to ISO 9001:2026.
Business aviation: production, service and distribution
Textron Aviation is headquartered in Wichita, home of the Cessna and Beechcraft brands, and Bombardier has made Wichita its US headquarters, with a flight test center, a service center and Bombardier Defense. Airbus runs its Americas Engineering Center on Wichita State's Innovation Campus.
Business aviation in Wichita is as much service as production, and that matters for scoping. Production suppliers work to AS9100. Distributors of aviation parts work to AS9120, which we also support. Maintenance, repair and overhaul runs on AS9110 alongside aviation maintenance regulation, and that is outside what we take on. If your work is maintenance, we will say so in the first call rather than the third.
Training, testing and the competence evidence auditors look for
Wichita has unusual aerospace infrastructure for a metro its size. Wichita State's National Institute for Aviation Research, established in 1985, provides research, testing, certification and training to the aerospace, defense and manufacturing industries, and WSU Tech trains aerostructures, avionics, composites and maintenance technicians at the National Center for Aviation Training.
That is useful for a quality system as well as a workforce. AS9100 auditors look for evidence that the people doing the work, including special processes and inspection, are competent for it. Training records from recognized programs, tied to the roles that need them, are the kind of evidence that closes that question quickly.
How we work with companies here
We spend on-site time in Wichita where it changes the outcome: the gap analysis walkthrough, the first internal audit, training, and the certification audits.
Most of the rest runs remotely. Procedures, risk registers, flow-down mapping and audit responses are better done on your schedule than in a conference room.
The person who scopes your engagement is the person who does it, and the work is led by an ISO 9001 lead auditor. There is no handoff to a junior implementer after the sale.
What an engagement covers
- Flow-down review, before anything else We read the quality clauses on your purchase orders and your customers' supplier requirements, and tell you whether you need AS9100, AS9120 or ISO 9001, and which separate approvals sit outside the standard.
- ISO 9001, from first certification to the 2026 transition A quality system your team actually uses, built to pass the audit. If you already hold ISO 9001:2015, a plan for the transition to the 2026 edition, which every accredited ISO 9001:2015 certificate must complete by September 30, 2029.
- AS9100D gap analysis Two to four weeks against the full standard, starting from the system you have. You finish with a prioritized plan, an honest effort estimate and a clear go or no-go before you spend real money.
- ISO 9001 to AS9100 upgrade If you hold ISO 9001, we add the aerospace layer to it: operational risk, configuration management, product safety, counterfeit part prevention, FOD prevention, special process validation and first article inspection.
- AS9120 for distributors Traceability, documentation that travels with the part, and counterfeit part prevention, built for distributors rather than producers.
- Internal audit and management review An internal audit against AS9100D or ISO 9001 before the certification body arrives, and a management review that produces decisions. Also available on its own, every year.
- Certification and surveillance support Stage 1 and Stage 2 preparation with your certification body, findings closed properly, and support through surveillance. The choice of certification body is always yours.
- ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 on the same system Environmental and safety management built into the same system rather than run in parallel, with a legal register grounded in federal OSHA and KDHE requirements.
Questions we get from companies in this market
What ISO consulting do you offer in Wichita?
AS9100 and AS9120 for aerospace suppliers and distributors; ISO 9001 and the ISO 9001:2026 transition; ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 for environmental and safety management; ISO 27001 for information security; ISO/IEC 42001 for companies that build or use AI; ISO 13485 for medical devices; and ISO/IEC 17025 for testing and calibration laboratories. Each engagement can cover a gap analysis, implementation, internal audits and certification audit support. We are an active member of the Wichita Manufacturers Association and work on-site in Wichita.
We are not in aerospace. Can you still help?
Yes. AS9100 leads this page because aerospace shapes so much of Wichita's supply base, but we support ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 42001, ISO 13485 and ISO/IEC 17025 for companies in any industry, along with the ISO 9001:2026 transition for every company certified to the 2015 edition.
Do Wichita suppliers need AS9100, or is ISO 9001 enough?
It depends on your customer's flow-down. If the quality clause on your purchase order names AS9100, you need AS9100. If it names ISO 9001, you may still want AS9100 for the customers you plan to win next, but that is a choice. Some primes publish tiered supplier conditions where only the higher tiers require AS9100, so read the clause before you scope the project. A flow-down review is usually the first thing we do.
Does Boeing's acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems change our supplier requirements?
We cannot speak for Boeing, and you should rely on what Boeing's supplier management tells you directly. The acquisition closed on December 8, 2025. If you supply that site, check the quality clauses on your current purchase orders and any supplier portal notices, and make sure your system answers the terms you work to now. If anything has changed, we map the new requirements against your system so you know exactly what to update.
We do aircraft maintenance and repair. Can you help with AS9110?
No. AS9110 is the standard for maintenance organizations, and that work sits alongside aviation maintenance regulation. It is outside our scope, and we would rather tell you now. If part of your business distributes parts, AS9120 is a different matter, and we do support it.
Is Nadcap part of AS9100?
No. Nadcap is a separate accreditation program for special processes such as heat treating, chemical processing and nondestructive testing, and many aerospace customers require it in addition to AS9100. AS9100 requires those processes to be validated and controlled, and we build that into your system. Preparing for the Nadcap audit itself is a separate service we do not provide.
Does Kansas have its own OSHA program?
No. Kansas has no OSHA-approved State Plan, so most private-sector workplaces are under federal OSHA, with an OSHA area office in Wichita. That simplifies the legal register for an ISO 45001 system compared with states that run their own plans.
Should we wait for the next AS9100 revision?
No. IAQG has announced its intent to revise 9100 under an “IA” designation, but as of October 2026 it had not published a release date or a transition timeline. Your customers' requirement is AS9100 today, and a well-built AS9100D system is the foundation any revision will build on.
How long does an AS9100 project take?
It depends mostly on where you start. Upgrading a working ISO 9001 system is the shortest route; building a first quality management system for a new aerospace customer takes longer. The gap analysis gives you a real timeline before you commit to anything more. If your deadline comes from a customer, start counting back from that date now, because certification body schedules are not always flexible.
Other standards we support in Wichita
Other standards in Wichita
This page is about AS9100, which is what this metro's industry asks for most often. We cover these here too.
- ISO 9001 in Wichita ISO 9001 certification in Wichita: first certificates, the 2026 transition, and companies that hold ISO 9001 beside AS9100. Led by an ISO 9001 lead auditor.