Quality policy
What ESM commits to, in writing.
EN 9100 requires the quality policy to be available to interested parties. Publishing it is the simplest way to meet that, and it is the first document a supplier quality engineer asks for. Below is the text of the controlled document, word for word.
The policy
Eight commitments
ESM machines complex components for aerostructures and aircraft equipment. Parts leaving Ben Arous fly. Everything below follows from that single fact.
We commit to satisfying applicable customer, statutory and regulatory requirements, and to continually improving the effectiveness of our management system. This policy is issued under EN 9100:2018 §5.2, supports our strategic direction, and provides the framework within which our quality objectives are set. It will be reviewed against IA9100, the single international successor to AS 9100, EN 9100 and JISQ 9100 expected in late 2026, at the first management review following its publication.
Conformity to the definition
We deliver what the drawing says, to the revision stated on the order, or we do not deliver. A deviation is a concession request submitted before delivery, never a discovery made afterwards.
On-time delivery
A committed date is a date simulated against capacity, not a date we hope for. Where a date is at risk, the customer is told while there is still time to act.
Product safety
Anyone whose work can affect the safety of a part is briefed on how, and knows they may stop the work. EN 9100 §8.1.3.
Prevention of counterfeit parts
Material and components come from the manufacturer or an authorised distributor, with certificates verified on receipt. EN 9100 §8.1.4.
Competence, and the authority that goes with it
Fitting and inspection are performed by individually authorised operators. Competence is planned, delivered, evaluated and recorded, not assumed.
Control of the whole chain
What leaves the site for a special process stays our responsibility. Requirements are flowed down in writing and verified on return. EN 9100 §8.4.3.
Analysis rather than repair
A non-conformity is a root cause to find: contained first, analysed in 8D, and closed only when the corrective action is proven effective.
Ethical behaviour
Records say what happened. No signature is given for an operation that was not performed, and no result is adjusted to fit a tolerance. EN 9100 §7.3.
Beyond quality
And three that Aero Excellence assesses alongside quality
The Aero Excellence assessment used across the European supply chain does not stop at the quality system. It looks at health and safety, at environmental management and at information security. ESM publishes its position on all three rather than leaving an assessor to ask.
Health and safety
Safety instructions, personal protective equipment and controlled handling of machining fluids and chemicals. Nobody is asked to trade their safety for a delivery date.
Environment
Controlled handling and disposal of fluids, swarf and chemicals, and a reduction of what we consume per part. ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 are in deployment and are not presented as acquired.
Information security
Customer technical data is confidential from arrival, segregated between customers, accessed on need, and returned or destroyed at the end of the contract. How that is organised.
Aero Excellence
Bronze first. Then keep going.
Aero Excellence is the common supplier assessment created by the French, German and British aerospace associations — GIFAS, BDLI and ADS — and since extended to further countries. It replaces the separate audits each prime used to run with one standard assessment, covering operational excellence, environment and cyber security. Suppliers are assessed at bronze, silver or gold.
ESM is engaged in that process. Our declared first milestone is bronze, and the improvement plan does not stop there: the point of the framework is the trajectory it forces, not the badge at the end of it.
ESM is not currently labelled. Bronze is a declared objective and an active work programme, not an acquired result. No Aero Excellence level will appear on this site, in a capability statement or in a tender response until an assessment has been completed and the result is documented. The assessment is targeted for February 2027.
The five assessed domains, as defined by the Aero Excellence referential published by GIFAS with BDLI, ADS and TEDAE. The process starts with a self-assessment on the Aero Excellence platform, continues with an improvement plan and is closed by an on-site assessment by independent assessors; the label is valid for three years.
Programme figures published by GIFAS on 23 June 2026, following ILA Berlin. Airbus alone reported 326 qualified assessors, 127 assessments completed in 2024–25 and 133 planned for 2026.
The assessment itself follows a fixed sequence: a self-assessment on the Aero Excellence platform, an improvement plan, then a three-day on-site assessment preceded by one remote preparation day, conducted by a team of four independent assessors specialised by domain. The label is valid for three years and is recognised by the participating OEMs in place of their own supplier audits.
Tunisia is not a member country of Aero Excellence International, whose members are France (GIFAS), Germany (BDLI), the United Kingdom (ADS) and, since December 2025, Spain (TEDAE). Sites outside member countries are registered and assessed at the request of their customers, which is how the programme reaches 33 countries. The memorandum signed by GITAS and GIFAS at the Paris Air Show in June 2025 extends Aero Excellence, AirCyber and training to the Tunisian aerospace supply chain.
Where the evidence for each domain is published
| Domain | What the assessors look at | Where ESM states its position |
|---|---|---|
| Cyber security | Governance of the information system, protection of customer data, incident response, requirements flowed down the supply chain. | Information security — commitments table, NIS2, customer data segregation |
| Environment | Environmental management, substances and waste, energy and emissions, regulatory compliance. | Corporate responsibility — ISO 14001 in deployment, roadmap · Compliance — REACH |
| Strategy, health and safety, human resources, ethics | Strategy and governance, occupational health and safety, competence management, business ethics. | About ESM — organisation, process owners, HSE · Careers — competence management · Compliance and ethics — conduct, concern channel |
| Planning, logistics and supplier management | Demand and capacity planning, inventory and logistics, supplier selection, requirement flow-down, supplier risk and development. | Capabilities — capacity model, rolling plan · Suppliers — selection, flow-down, evaluation · Industrial ecosystem — partner network controls |
| Industrialisation (APQP), series quality and production excellence | APQP deliverables, control plans, non-conformity and change control, physical flow, standards, indicators, tool management, traceability. | Quality system — APQP table, methods, indicators · Engineering — NPI, digital chain · Equipment — tool management, calibration |
Where the work sits today
The quality system is certified and audited. The three domains Aero Excellence adds — health and safety, environment, information security — are covered by commitments 09 to 11 above and by our information security page.
What bronze requires of us
A self-assessment against the five domains, the evidence behind every answer, and closure of the gaps it exposes. We are running that as an improvement programme, not as an audit preparation exercise.
What happens after bronze
The same cycle, one level up. Improvement objectives are reset in management review each year against the domains where the assessment scored us lowest, whatever level we hold at the time.
Why we say this before we have the label: a supplier that only mentions a framework once it has passed is telling you about its marketing. A supplier that tells you where it stands, and what it is doing about it, is telling you about its management system.
How it is measured
A policy with no indicator is a poster
Quality objectives are set annually from this policy, reviewed in management review and measured monthly. The two that reach the customer are on-time delivery and defective parts per million delivered; both are shared with customers who ask, monthly, against the same definition they use.
We publish a range rather than a best month. Over the last twelve rolling months on-time delivery runs between 95 and 98 %. A supplier that publishes 100 % is either not counting the same way you are, or not counting.
Customer satisfaction, the effectiveness of corrective actions and progress against improvement objectives are reviewed in the same management review.
Communication
A policy nobody has read is not a policy
This policy is communicated to everyone at ESM, displayed at the workplace, explained at induction, and reviewed for continuing suitability in management review. EN 9100 §5.2.2 asks that it be understood and applied, not only distributed — which is why it is written in the language of the shop floor rather than the language of the standard.
Signature
Issued by general management
Revision A is issued under the authority of the three signatories below.
Firas Touati
Industrial Excellence Manager
Hamdi Koubaa
Chief Operating Officer
Mohamed Ouali
Chief Executive Officer
