Insight into the APAQG.

Our special guest today is Suguru Watanabe, director of quality commercial aviation systems for Mitsubishi Heavy Industry (MHI). Watanabe is also the Asia Pacific Aerospace Quality Group (APAQG) sector lead for the IAQG.

In this episode, we explore the current efforts within the APAQG for expanding the membership and project initiatives including the Single SDO, ICOP scheme for 9120 in Japan, and the certification status of the 9100 scheme for India.

The IAQG is the International Aerospace Quality Group and sets the standard for quality within the worldwide supply chain within the aviation, space, and defense industry. IAQG currently maintains 26 active standards that establish common/shared tools and methods for quality improvement. To learn more, visit https://iaqg.org.  

Transcript

The Quality Horizon – Insight into the APAQG

Susan Matson: [00:00:00] Greetings everyone and welcome. I'm your host Susan Matson and with me today is Suguru Watanabe. Suguru is responsible for the quality commercial aviation systems as director for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Additionally, he is the APAQG sector lead for the IAQG. Welcome to the show, Suguru. 

Suguru Watanabe: Nice to meet you. Thank you. 

Susan Matson: Thank you. Now, I know I've said this before to our listeners, but I want to remind them that the IAQG is structured by geographic area. So in the three sectors, we have the AAQG, which is in the Americas, the EAQG, which is Europe and Africa in the Middle East, and then we have the APAQG. Suguru, can you tell the listeners what the geographic coverage is of the APAQG? [00:01:00]

Suguru Watanabe: So APAQG is the cover of the Asia Pacific area from the very wide area. So from the east to west. APQG is, composed of nine countries So country name is China, South Korea, Japan, India, Singapore, Taiwan, [00:03:00] Thailand, and the Philippines. And, there are 35 member companies, uh, joined, and 32 IAQG members, and three APAQG members. And China, South Korea, Japan, India, and Singapore, organized this national quality groups.

Susan Matson: 35 member companies and 32 of them under, within the IAQG, that, that's a lot. How do you work to expand the sector membership in the APAQG? How do you keep that going? 

Suguru Watanabe: We did promotion activities to expand our membership. Uh, in 2015 [00:02:00] we had a promotion activity in Thailand and we did promote activity basis in Malaysia, India, India, Australia, and New Zealand.

Suguru Watanabe: And we have members from those countries, especially many members from India. India Aerospace Quality Group, and those members are supporting IAQG, APAQG activities, such as AIMM and SCMH writing teams. Yeah, we had a COVID 19 situation. Now we started face to face meet activity like APAQG meeting in Singapore.

Suguru Watanabe: In Singapore meeting, we had a supplier forum to introduce our activities. So we are seeking more membership members from various countries. 

Susan Matson: That's wonderful. [00:03:00]  And that face to face meeting that you just had in Singapore must've been nice after so many years of just talking on screen. 

Suguru Watanabe: Yes. 

Susan Matson: If there are companies that are listening that do want to be part of the APAQG, obviously you would need to go to the APQG.org website and click on the link for sector for the APAQG and you can get information by about that. Now, let's talk about, let's talk about the different types of membership. Because the APAQG has some different types. You have affiliates and then you have an APAQG1 and an APAQG2. And this is unique to your sector versus the other two. So can you explain the different levels? 

Suguru Watanabe: So we are welcome to the participating IAQG, APAQG activities from many companies. And need to be support by industrial association to expand our activities. So [00:04:00] we set category APQG one, uh, for companies whose corporation already has voting rights in APQG country or, company, subsidiaries belong to the same parent company and rather small and medium size companies.

Suguru Watanabe: And we set category APAQG2 for association and national agency related to our industries in each countries. The APAQG activity is so much supported by the contribution of those organizations. 

Susan Matson: Wonderful. That interesting, so did they all came together at the sector meeting that you were just at, that you just held, correct?

Susan Matson: So, and during those meetings, you have, you talk about a number of different projects, a number of different initiatives that the IAQG level is working on, but then also at the individual sectors. So, can we talk about a couple things [00:05:00] for instance, the first one that I have on my list that I'd love for you to comment on is, is the single SDO, that, that single distribution initiative for our standards. Can we talk about that a little bit? 

Suguru Watanabe: Single SDO, so we are support and engage the single SDO development and transition. So we had, we're meeting to understand those process of a single SDO such as a drafting standard. The contribution content of standards and voting or publication.

Suguru Watanabe: Additionally, we explained about latest change of IAQG requirement procedure to smoothly application of these process. Assigned a member for IAQG standard council and for preparation of transition process, we are setting focal of translated standards in local [00:06:00]  language with support of CAQG, AAQG, and JAQG.

Suguru Watanabe: And we will support applying a new process smoothly in focus on verification process of publication of standard in local language. Local language is, yeah, local language is Chinese, Korean, Japanese. 

Susan Matson: Wonderful. And I, that's going to probably be very beneficial to specifically your, uh, your constituent in the APAQG, you need to be able to, to have it in the local language to, to thoroughly understand it.

Susan Matson: So, let's also talk about the 9120 and the ICOP scheme developing that specifically in, in Japan. Correct? 

Suguru Watanabe: Yes. So ICOP scheme, we had only two country which ICOP scheme established under IPQG certificate oversight scheme in Japan, the establishment of ICOP scheme of [00:07:00] 9120 is in progress after certification body accredited by Japanese AB audit activity will start in this year. 

Susan Matson: Now, the 9120 in Japan, but we've got the 9100 scheme some work is, is going on in India. Can you talk about that? 

Suguru Watanabe: Yeah. Uh, India is, uh, started, uh, developing their certification scheme last year. They started the plan of approved of their AB first.

Suguru Watanabe: IAQG COT and APQG COT are supporting some action of their development plan. They are seeking to establish their own ICOPS scheme in 2024. 

Susan Matson: Great, and that started in 2022, so this will be two years in the making or will be two years in the making. And just for our listeners, [00:08:00]  since COT is, is relatively new to our organization, stands for certification oversight team, and it is the new name to the OPMT.

Susan Matson: So moving on, let's talk a little more about the transition to some physical meetings and real activity and engagement post COVID restrictions. How has that changed? 

Suguru Watanabe: Yes, we have started activities to return to face to face meeting from this year, but there are still some restriction on cross border travel.

Suguru Watanabe: The 39th APQG meeting was held in Singapore. But it was not a complete face to face meeting, but a hybrid format that's shared online. This meeting was the first physical meeting after COVID 19. 

Susan Matson: So, sounds like activities [00:09:00] are increasing. And how do you monitor that? How do you find out how well the member companies are participating and encouraging them to participate?

Suguru Watanabe: Yeah, APQG has assessment procedure for each company's participation based on which the leadership team conduct annual assessment once a year. This is the fourth year that we have made a evaluation. If a company's participation is low as a result of the evaluation the sector leader will make a request for improvement.

Suguru Watanabe: For example, last year, we asked one company to make improvement. And we, uh, have a track record or immediate improvement, including a participation in IAQG meeting, and I made a request supporting our activities, [00:10:00] especially for attending and discussing IAQG operation, Operation Council to IAQG full members, and joining SCMH writing team to all members.

Susan Matson: And that really is what is needed. I mean, we need to have the, the participants, the member companies participating to really move the needle and meet the initiatives and the mission of the IAQG. So one of those really big initiatives, which is a few years in the making is the transition to OASIS V3. What are some of the things that you are most looking forward to? 

Suguru Watanabe: Go live for OSV3, all functions including the change based on the revised standard are collected immediately and all data moved to a new database. OSV3 is a database. So I am expecting the development of the new activities using data analysis to contribute [00:11:00] quality improvement of our industries. 

Susan Matson: Yes, data is going to be huge in the Oasis V3. I think everyone's looking forward to that. So, if somebody was interested in the APAQG or didn't know much about the IAQG in the Asia Pacific area and why it's important to them, what's that one thing you want listeners to share? Or what do you want to share with our listeners? 

Suguru Watanabe: There are many Asia countries, and each country has its own history of aerospace industry development and developing on each station. APQG will support the process of development and lead its participation in IAQG. So, we welcome new participation, participation anytime.

Susan Matson: Ah, wonderful. I look forward to seeing the new folks that come. Um, before I go, before we go, I should say. Can you share with our listeners [00:12:00]  a little bit of background about you? Suguru, I know you started in the engineering side of things in the 90s. And you've been with the IAQG since 2020. Can you tell us a little bit about that? 

Suguru Watanabe: Okay, so I'm responsible for the commercial aviation system of MHI as director. And I joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, we entered the Nagoya Aerospace Works in 1990. So after I obtained a bachelor's degree from Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Technology in Japan.

Suguru Watanabe: I start my career as a quality engineer for the Japanese Experiment Module, nickname is Kibo, for the International Space Station. Mainly, we conducted a safety analysis and in charge of the safety and protection assurance. I joined the composite wing development team as a [00:13:00] quality engineering leader in 2003.

Suguru Watanabe: And, uh, 2008, I managed the manufacturing engineer team and manufacturing for composite wings. After that, in 2010, I returned to the quality department and managed the quality of wing and fuselage, structures, assembly, and parts manufacturing, supply chain for various commercial aircraft until my current position, and I joined IAQG APQG activities in 2020.

Suguru Watanabe: I have been biased, APQG leader of from the 2020. I was approved as a sector leader in 2022 March APQG meeting. Then it was agreed with IAQG voting member in 2020. In 2022 IAQG General Assembly meeting [00:14:00] to be sector leader and executive committee members. 

Susan Matson: And we are happy to have you. Thank you, Mr. Watanabe. I appreciate your time for really shining the light on everything that is going on in the APAQG. Best of luck with everything. Thank you. This is Susan Matson and you have been listening to the IAQG Quality Horizon. Until next time, stay safe.