Your customer flows down AS9100 requirements, a first article package on every new part number, and a cert trail for every lot, while your shop still runs the job off a paper traveler and a folder of PDFs on a shared drive. When a prime asks for the records behind a shipment, someone spends the afternoon searching email, filing cabinets, and the quality manager’s desktop. OnRamp is aerospace ERP software built to attach every certificate, inspection record, and drawing revision to the lot and job it belongs to, so the documentation package builds while the part runs.
OnRamp was built inside Mancor Industries, a tier 1 manufacturer supplying Mack, Volvo, Cummins, and PACCAR, where customer audits and traceability requirements come with every shipment.
What Sub-Tier Aerospace and Defense Suppliers Are Dealing With
Most machine shops, fabricators, and finishers doing aerospace and defense work run it alongside automotive, industrial, and commercial jobs on the same equipment. The aerospace work arrives with a heavier set of rules, including AS9100 flow-downs, AS9102 first article inspection, material certs tied to heat lots, special process certifications, and a customer who expects every record on request.
The trouble usually sits in the records rather than the machining. Certs live in email, FAI forms live in a quality folder, drawing revisions live on the engineering server, and the traveler on the floor carries whatever someone printed last week. When an auditor or a prime’s quality engineer asks for the full history of a part, your team rebuilds it by hand.
Here is what this looks like day to day:
- Mill certs and certificates of conformance arrive with material and end up in an inbox or a filing cabinet instead of attached to the lot
- Every new part number or revision change means another first article package assembled by hand
- An operator runs a job off a printed drawing without knowing a newer revision exists
- Customer flow-down requirements sit in the purchase order PDF, and nobody on the floor sees them
- Parts go out for heat treat, plating, or NDT, and the returning certs get matched to the job days later, if at all
- A nonconformance on one lot turns into a paper search to find which other jobs used the same material
- AS9100 surveillance audit prep takes a week of pulling records from four places
- Aerospace jobs share machines with automotive and industrial work, and the schedule shows no difference in documentation load between them
- Questions about ITAR, the Controlled Goods Program, or CMMC come up, and nobody is sure where controlled drawings and data live today
If any of those statements describe a conversation you have had in the last 30 days, you are in the right place.
From Material Cert to Shipped Part: How OnRamp Runs Aerospace and Defense Work
Most ERP software treats quality records as files stored next to the order. For an aerospace supplier, the records are part of the product, and a part without its cert trail, first article record, and revision history is a part your customer will reject.
OnRamp builds quoting, scheduling, inventory, shop floor execution, quality, engineering, maintenance, shipping, and accounting on one codebase and one data model, so the documentation for a part collects in the same record as the part itself.
Here is what this looks like for a sub-tier aerospace or defense supplier:
Documents attached where they belong: FAI forms, mill certs, certificates of conformance, drawings, inspection reports, and special process certs attach directly to the lot, job, part, or shipment they describe. OnRamp accepts any document type, so your records follow the part instead of sitting in a separate folder. When a customer asks for the package behind a shipment, you pull it from the record.
AS9102 first article records tied to the revision: First article inspection forms and ballooned drawings are stored against the part number and revision they cover. First-article results logged at the machine land in the same job record, so the next FAI starts from a complete history rather than a blank form.
Material traceability from heat lot to shipment: Material gets tracked from receipt through every operation to the shipment, with the mill cert attached to the lot at receiving. When a material issue or customer escape comes up, you identify every affected job and shipment with a query instead of a search through binders.
Revision control at the machine: Engineering changes route through a formal change process before they reach the floor. Line-side monitors show operators the current drawing, work instructions, and quality checkpoints for the revision they are running, and the printed traveler with last month’s drawing stops being a risk.
Shop floor execution with inspection built in: Operators log completions, in-process inspection results, and nonconformances at the machine in real time. The data flows into quality records, scheduling, and job costing as the work happens, without paper travelers or end-of-shift data entry.
Outside processing certs matched to the job: When parts return from heat treat, plating, anodizing, or NDT, the vendor’s certification attaches to the same lot and job the parts came from. The special process record sits beside your own inspection data rather than in a separate pile waiting to get filed.
Nonconformance and corrective action in one record: Nonconformance reports and corrective actions live in the job record alongside the material, operator, and inspection data. When a prime asks for a corrective action response, the history your quality team needs is already there.
Access controls and audit trails: User permissions by role control who sees and edits drawings, part data, and quality records. User activity logs and audit trails show who changed what and when. OnRamp also supports on-premise installation, so shops handling controlled technical data keep the application and database on servers inside their own environment.
Accounting tied to production: When a job ships, the financials move with it, and job costing reflects actual labor, material, inspection time, and rework instead of standard estimates. For aerospace work where inspection and documentation eat hours the quote never covered, you see the true cost of each part number.
For detailed operational capability by process:
- Machine shop and CNC operations: See the Machine Shop ERP software page
- Fabricated metals operations: See the Metal Fabrication ERP software page
- Coating and finishing operations: See the Powder Coating ERP software page
ITAR, CMMC, and Controlled Goods: What OnRamp Covers and Where Your Controls Take Over
Several aerospace ERP software vendors put ITAR and CMMC badges on their pages. Software supports compliance with those rules, and the obligation belongs to your company, covering your people, facility, IT environment, and procedures. We would rather tell you exactly where OnRamp fits.
OnRamp gives you:
- Optional on-premise installation, so controlled technical data and part records stay on servers inside your environment and within your cybersecurity scope
- Role-based user permissions to restrict access to drawings, part data, and customer records
- User activity logs and audit trails showing who viewed or changed a record and when
- Controlled drawings and technical documents stored against the parts and jobs they govern, instead of scattered across email and shared drives
One Solution for Every Customer on Your Floor
Most sub-tier aerospace suppliers are mixed shops. The same five-axis machine runs a flight hardware bracket in the morning and an automotive part in the afternoon. The same press brake forms a defense enclosure and an industrial cabinet in one shift. The documentation requirements differ by customer, and the operation has to handle both without running two sets of tools.
Some shops solve this with a separate quality management tool for aerospace records next to an ERP tool for orders and invoicing. The connection between the two is a person, and when the person is out, the records fall behind. Other vendors sell an aerospace module acquired from a different company and connected through an integration, and when something breaks, support bounces between teams while you manage the gap.
OnRamp is integrated by design. Quoting, scheduling, inventory, shop floor execution, quality, engineering, maintenance, shipping, and accounting share one codebase and one data model. An aerospace job carries its certs, FAI records, and revision history in the same record where an automotive job carries its EDI releases and PPAP data, and the schedule, inventory, and costing see both the same way.
For a shop growing its aerospace and defense work, this means you add customers with heavier documentation requirements without adding another tool, another database, or another person whose job is keeping the records in sync.
Built Inside a Manufacturer Who Answers to OEM Audits
Mancor Industries
OnRamp was built inside Mancor Industries, a tier 1 supplier running high-volume production for Mack, Volvo, Cummins, and PACCAR across six Ontario facilities. OEM quality requirements, traceability on every shipment, and customer audits shaped how OnRamp handles records from day one. Mancor has become a preferred supplier for multiple major OEMs, with customers working to give Mancor as much work as their own supply chain diversification requirements allow.
Genesis Metalworks
“A lot has changed since go-live. Parts are better tracked in the shop, documentation is more professional, and nothing leaves the facility without a label.” Kees Van Houwelingen, CFO, Genesis Metalworks
Genesis has since scaled into a new facility and opened a new operation in Charlotte, NC.
Innovative Castings
“Before OnRamp, we were managing production, quality, and shipping across tools that did not talk to each other. When a customer called with a question, the answer required pulling from three different places. Now everything is in one place. Our on-time delivery improved, our quality records are audit-ready, and our team spends less time chasing information and more time running the shop.” Christina Buster, Innovative Castings
100% of OnRamp customers achieve their business goals within 12 months of go-live. We have never lost a customer.
The Right Fit for OnRamp
OnRamp works best for North American sub-tier aerospace and defense suppliers with 20 to 250 employees. CNC machine shops, precision contract manufacturers, fabricators, and finishing shops taking AS9100 work from primes and tier 1 suppliers are strong fits, especially shops running aerospace and defense work alongside automotive, industrial, and commercial customers.
The suppliers who get the most out of OnRamp are dealing with at least one of these pressures: first article packages built by hand for every new part number, material certs and special process certs matched to jobs after the fact, AS9100 audit prep turning into a week-long paper chase, or operators running jobs without confidence in the drawing revision.
OnRamp is the wrong fit for primes and program manufacturers who need earned value management, CAS and FAR contract accounting, or MRO tracking for life-limited parts and airworthiness directives. It is also the wrong fit today if your contracts require a vendor-hosted cloud environment scoped for CMMC Level 2. If your requirements sit there, we would rather tell you now.
The buyers who get the most out of OnRamp are owners, ops leaders, and quality managers tired of running aerospace documentation off email, shared drives, and one person’s memory. They want the cert trail, FAI record, and revision history for any part in front of them in seconds when a prime calls. Controllers and CFOs get it too, with job costing reflecting the inspection and documentation hours aerospace work consumes.
Running Aerospace and Defense Work in a Sub-Tier Shop: What Your Customers Require
The sections below are written for shops taking on aerospace and defense work, or growing it, and trying to figure out whether their current tools will keep up. If you are earlier in the process, start here.
AS9100 and ERP Software: What Sub-Tier Suppliers Need From Their Records
AS9100 builds on ISO 9001 with requirements specific to aviation, space, and defense, including configuration management, product safety, counterfeit parts prevention, first article inspection, and control of external providers. Primes flow these requirements down through purchase orders, and many require AS9100 certification before a supplier gets added to the approved supplier list.
The standard itself is about process control, and auditors test it through records. They pick a shipped part and ask for the material cert, the drawing revision it was built to, the inspection results, the operator training record, and the history of any nonconformance. A shop with records spread across email, paper, and three software tools passes the audit through a week of effort, while a shop with records attached to the part passes it with a query.
ERP software supporting AS9100 connects quality records to the production operation. Certs attach to lots, revisions attach to jobs, inspection results get captured at the machine, and nonconformances carry their corrective actions. OnRamp builds this record as production runs, so surveillance audit prep shrinks from a week to an afternoon.
Read More: ISO 9001:2026 for Manufacturers: What Changed and Where Your Shop Will Feel It
AS9102 First Article Inspection: Why the Package Takes So Long to Build
AS9102 defines the first article inspection requirements aerospace customers expect on new parts. An FAI package documents part number accountability, product accountability covering raw material, specifications, special processes, and functional testing, and characteristic accountability covering every design characteristic on the ballooned drawing. Customers require a new or partial FAI after a design change, a change in manufacturing process or location, or a lapse in production of two years.
Most sub-tier shops build these packages by hand. The inspector measures the part, then someone hunts for the mill cert, the heat treat cert, the plating cert, and the drawing revision, and pastes everything into a set of forms. When the customer rejects the package for a missing cert or a revision mismatch, the hunt starts over.
The slow part is rarely the measurement, and usually the collection of product accountability records scattered across receiving, purchasing, and quality. When material certs attach to the lot at receiving and outside processing certs attach to the job when parts return, the supporting records for an FAI already sit in one place.
OnRamp stores FAI forms and ballooned drawings against the part number and revision, and ties the material and special process certs to the lot and job. Your inspector spends time on the measurements, and the package comes together from records already attached.
Material Traceability in Aerospace Manufacturing: From Heat Lot to Shipped Part
Aerospace customers expect traceability from the finished part back to the raw material heat lot, through every operation and special process in between. When a material supplier flags a heat lot, or a customer finds an escape in the field, you are expected to identify every affected part, job, and shipment quickly and with evidence.
Most shops record lot numbers somewhere, and the problem sits in the connections between the records: the lot number sits on the receiving paperwork, the cert sits in a filing cabinet, the job record sits in the ERP software, and the outside processing cert sits in an email. Pulling a complete trace means searching all of them and hoping they cross-reference correctly.
Full traceability requires a single record connecting the material lot and its cert, the jobs consuming it, the operators and machines running it, the inspection results, the special process certs, and the shipment. OnRamp builds this record as the part moves through production, so a trace becomes a query instead of an investigation.
ITAR and CMMC for Machine Shops and Fabricators: Where Your ERP Software Fits
ITAR, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, controls defense articles and related technical data on the United States Munitions List, and restricts access by foreign persons. For a machine shop or fabricator, the technical data is often the controlled item: the drawings, models, and specifications your customer sends you.
CMMC, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, is the Department of Defense framework for verifying contractors protect Federal Contract Information and Controlled Unclassified Information. Subcontractors handling CUI generally need to meet CMMC Level 2, built on the 110 security requirements in NIST SP 800-171. The CMMC rollout schedule has shifted during 2026, and the NIST SP 800-171 requirements under DFARS 252.204-7012 remain in force for contracts carrying the clause. Primes also set their own deadlines for suppliers.
Your ERP software matters here for one reason: it stores controlled drawings, part data, and customer records. Before you choose any ERP software for defense work, know where it stores data, who administers the servers, who has access by role, and what gets logged. Software with on-premise installation keeps the data inside the environment your cybersecurity program already covers.
OnRamp supports on-premise installation, role-based permissions, and user activity logs. Compliance itself depends on your full program of people, facility, IT, and procedures, and no ERP software makes a company ITAR or CMMC compliant on its own.
Controlled Goods Program: What Canadian Defense Suppliers Need to Know
Canadian manufacturers doing defense work face a parallel requirement. The Controlled Goods Program, administered by Public Services and Procurement Canada, requires companies who examine, possess, or transfer controlled goods in Canada to register with the program, and controlled goods include technical data for many defense articles. Canadian shops taking ITAR-controlled work from US customers typically need both CGP registration and ITAR-aware handling of the data.
For a Canadian machine shop or fabricator, the practical question matches the ITAR question: where do controlled drawings and part data live, and who has access to them? Registered companies need to control and account for access to controlled goods, which becomes difficult when drawings sit in email, on shared drives, and on printed travelers across the floor.
OnRamp was built in Ontario, inside a Canadian manufacturer. On-premise installation keeps controlled technical data on your servers, role-based permissions restrict who opens it, and activity logs record who accessed it.
Ready to See OnRamp in an Aerospace and Defense Context?
Choose where you are in the process:
Request a demo. See how OnRamp handles cert attachment, first article records, material traceability, and revision control for sub-tier aerospace and defense suppliers. No canned presentation. We run it against your parts and your customers’ flow-down requirements.
Download: Aerospace and Defense ERP Readiness Checklist. Not ready to talk yet? Use this checklist to find where your current operation has gaps against what your aerospace and defense customers require.
Read the Mancor Industries Case Study. See how the manufacturer who built OnRamp runs traceability and customer audits across six facilities.
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