IN Brief:
- The recently acquired Vexos facility in Vietnam has achieved AS9100D aerospace and defence quality-management certification.
- The approval expands East West + Vexos’ qualified Asian capacity for complex electronic and electromechanical manufacturing.
- AS9100D adds aviation, space, and defence quality requirements to the facility’s underlying ISO 9001 management framework.
East West + Vexos has gained AS9100D certification for its recently acquired Vexos manufacturing facility in Vietnam, giving the combined manufacturing group another qualified location for aerospace and defence electronics and electromechanical production in Asia.
The certification follows East West Manufacturing’s acquisition of Vexos and extends the quality approvals available across the enlarged company’s Integrated Manufacturing Solutions network. East West + Vexos says the Vietnam operation can now support aerospace and defence customers requiring manufacture under the internationally recognised sector quality-management framework.
AS9100 is built on ISO 9001 but adds requirements specific to aviation, space, and defence manufacturing. The framework covers areas including operational risk management, product safety, configuration control, delivery performance, production processes, and prevention of counterfeit parts, providing a common quality baseline across an industry with tightly controlled supply arrangements.
Certification changes the type of work a manufacturing site can credibly pursue. Aerospace and defence customers frequently require evidence that manufacturing controls, traceability, documentation, supplier management, and corrective-action processes operate within an audited quality system before programmes can be transferred to a facility. The approval does not qualify every product made in Vietnam automatically, but it removes a major facility-level barrier for work requiring an AS9100-certified environment.
East West + Vexos designs and manufactures complex electronic and electromechanical products and operates a wider network spanning engineering, prototyping, new-product introduction, manufacturing, and supply chain services. The company says its combined organisation now provides customers with broader regional and global production options following the Vexos acquisition.
“Achieving AS9100D certification at our newly acquired Vexos Vietnam facility bolsters our ability to support aerospace and defense customers with the manufacturing capabilities, supply chain resilience, and high standards they require,” said Ryan Flynn, Chief Executive of East West + Vexos. The company has identified high reliability markets as a strategic area for growth.
The Vietnam approval also increases the practical value of having manufacturing capacity in several regions. Moving an aerospace or defence assembly between factories involves considerably more than transferring a bill of materials. Approved processes, tooling, test programmes, component traceability, engineering-change controls, supplier records, workmanship standards, and non-conformance procedures all have to produce equivalent hardware at the receiving site.
AS9100D supplies a common quality-management structure for that transfer, although individual customers will still impose programme-specific requirements. Defence electronics can involve controlled components, environmental testing, specialist inspection, cyber requirements, configuration baselines, and documentation that sit above the general quality-system certification. Individual products and programmes therefore require their own qualification work even when the factory itself is certified.
The certification is also relevant to supply chain resilience. A company may have spare capacity at another factory without being able to move regulated work there quickly if the alternative site lacks the required approvals. Adding AS9100D in Vietnam increases the portion of the East West + Vexos network capable of competing for aerospace and defence programmes and gives customers another potential manufacturing geography.
That option has particular value for electronics and electromechanical production, where component sourcing and production location are closely linked. Assemblies may depend on globally distributed semiconductors, connectors, printed circuit boards, machined parts, cable products, and specialist processes. A qualified Asian manufacturing site can shorten some supply routes or provide an alternative production location, but only where the underlying quality and programme controls remain consistent.
Peter Grimsdale, Senior Vice President, Asia at East West + Vexos, said the certification positions the Vietnam facility to support increasingly complex aerospace and defence programmes. The next stage will involve turning that approval into actual programme transfers and new customer qualifications rather than treating the certificate itself as the end of the process.
The Vexos acquisition gave East West Manufacturing a broader electronics manufacturing footprint; AS9100D now makes the Vietnam operation more usable for one of the group’s targeted regulated markets. Programme wins, transferred production, and sustained audit performance will provide the clearest evidence of how much aerospace and defence work ultimately moves into the certified capacity.
