TEC enjoys record year
Tutors at the aerospace and defence training specialist delivered 94 courses over 12 months to more than 786 delegates – an increase of 42% on 2015 and last summer TEC celebrated the training of its 4,000th engineer since the company was founded in 1977.
The delegates came from some of the world’s largest aerospace and defence contractors.
TEC Director Dr David Scrimshire said the massive increase in courses and delegates reflects the recent updates and changes to the AS9100 series of quality management system standards for the aerospace and defence industries. He said: “Demand has increased as companies begin preparing for the major changes to AS9100, which were delayed but finally released in the last quarter of 2016.
“We have had a vast number of enquiries and we are working hard to make sure everyone is ready to implement the changes for the deadlines this year and in 2018.
“Within the aerospace and defence sectors engineers need to constantly stay on top of new regulations, industry practise, efficiency models and safety systems.
“When you attend a TEC course you are not just getting two-days of learning but 30 years’ practical experience, combined with ongoing research and development.”
TEC courses help engineers perform audits and develop a better understanding of the design and implementation of modern, process-based quality management systems now mandated by AS9100 Rev D.
Courses included QMS Lead Auditor; AS9100 Internal Auditor; AS9100:2016 Heads-Up / Understanding & Implementing; Risk Management & FMEA and AS9100 and AS9120 foundation courses.
The courses are designed to help engineers with risk-based thinking, customer satisfaction, effectiveness and improvement of processes, as well as acting as a badge of competence to show certification bodies and customers.
Dr Scrimshire added: “The aerospace and defence sectors need to concentrate on modern quality tools if they are to keep up with the advances made in the automotive sector.
“Last year was a great year for us but we want to concentrate in 2017 on helping the industry with statistical process control, disciplined problem solving, risk management and improving gauge reproducibility and repeatability.
“As a company we are always looking at ways of improving our training sessions, not only to help the individual engineers taking part, but also to improve a company’s systems and processes.”
To cope with the growing demand, which also saw a 38% rise in courses on offer last year, TEC has moved to larger premises in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands.
Sue Ephgrave, Quality Manager for UPE Engineering Ltd, said: “During the last nine years, TEC Transnational has guided us through the AS9100 certification and we have continued to use them to conduct our internal audits, monthly customer and supplier delivery and quality performance reports.”
Euro Precision Quality Manager Anthony Powell said: “The benefits of Euro Precision now being certified to AS9100 mean we are confident of running our business more efficiently and effectively as well as giving us the opportunity to win further work within the aerospace and defence industries.”
TEC Transnational holds ISO 9001 certification and is both an CQI/IRCA Training Partner and an IAQG Training provider – they train the Certification Body auditors.
A J Walter Aviation Internal Auditor, Daniel Horne, said: “During our audit it has been invaluable to demonstrate that our training has been carried out by an organisation with such a level of approval.
"Given the growth in our organisation it was necessary to introduce 11 new auditors for this years’ programme.Given the quality of the TEC training we feel confident that our programme will be completed to a very high level.”
The company has run courses across the UK, Germany, United Arab Emirates, the USA and Russia.
