The Performance Review Institute (PRI) is the not-for-profit organization that administers the Nadcap program.

Performance Review Institute’s (PRI’s) History

1985: Government/Industry Equal Partners Conference recommends consensus solution to duplication of supplier quality assurance systems.
1990: PRI incorporated as a Not-For-Profit Trade Association. Launch Nadcap for Aerospace
1996: Launch of QPL
2002: Full Launch of eAuditNet
2004: Launch of eQuaLearn

Adding Value Through Customer Solutions and Support

With the Nadcap system successfully established in the aerospace industry, PRI has been able to focus on developing other customer solution and support orientated activities to add value to the engineering industry and provide long-term solutions to well-documented problems.

Personnel Qualification

According to a recent report by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), nearly 50% of the companies surveyed recruited from overseas in the last year to cover specific skills shortages, and 71% have experienced problems recruiting experienced staff. The issue is that there is no standard definition of experience – expectations of an advanced welder, for example, may vary between the automotive, aerospace and nuclear industries. It may even differ between companies in the same industry. Organizations are hiring operators that they believe to be at a certain level – and indeed, the operators themselves may believe that as well – and learn later that this is not the case.

eQuaLearn provides a solution to this problem. As well as offering general quality professional development courses covering topics such as Internal Auditing and Root Cause Corrective Action, special process courses are also under development with input from major engineering companies such as Alcoa, Goodrich Corporation, Honeywell Aerospace and Rolls-Royce plc. These courses will include welding, non-destructive testing and heat treatment, with others anticipated throughout 2008.

Cutting Edge Technology

The Nadcap aerospace auditing and accreditation program is supported by eAuditNet, an online audit software program used to record audit results and associated documentation, schedule audits, notify industry representatives of quality issues and produce reports based on multiple criteria. The launch of eAuditNet 2.0 is anticipated in early 2008. With enhanced functionality and improved user-friendly design, it is adaptable to different industries and user requirements, making it an exceptional engineering industry cutting-edge technology.

Looking to the future, PRI will continue to develop Nadcap and the other programs and technologies it currently administers while researching and implementing additional industry-focused solutions. Collectively, these allow PRI to work towards realizing its goal: Achieving Excellence Together.

For further details on eQuaLearn courses: eQuaLearn@sae.org

To learn how eAuditNet could be used in your industry / organization: eAuditNetSupport@sae.org