Where an aircraft production organisation is pursuing approval by DASA as a Military Production Organisation (MPO), DASA will rely extensively on the production organisation exposition to gain confidence that the organisation has the potential to provide professional aircraft production services. The information below provides an overview of the requirements of the exposition for MPOs; further information can be found in DASR 21.A.143.
Pivotal to the exposition is a description of the Production Quality System that is to be employed by the MPO, which shows how the MPO intends to:
ensure their production of products, parts and appliances conform to the applicable design data and is in condition for safe operation
account for production input provided by other organisations
implement an effective Safety Management System (SMS)
implement an independent quality assurance function for confirming the adequacy of the documented procedures and monitoring compliance with those procedures.
The exposition must specifically address, either directly or by reference to other documents, the organisational structure and key responsibilities, procedures and resources that will be employed by MPO, as summarised below.
Organisational structure and key responsibilities. In addition to presenting the proposed MPO structure, the exposition will document the incumbents for the following roles: the Accountable Manager, and the following two individuals that are formally accepted by DASA via the issue of Form 4 - Acceptance of Nominated Management Personnel:
Responsible Manager (RM) of the Production Organisation - responsible for the production organisation’s output
Quality Manager (QM) – responsible for the independent quality assurance function.
Procedures. The exposition will document key MPO procedures for a range of functions, including production, compliance documents, independent quality monitoring, and accounting for external subcontractors and suppliers. It will also document the selection, training, ongoing competence and identification of certifying staff.
In addition, depending on the specific roles of the MPO, the exposition may also present procedures for exercising assigned MPO privileges.
Resources. The exposition will describe the available resources to support the provision of airworthiness production, including human resources, equipment, tools, facilities, production data, and so on.