ERP Inventory for Aerospace and Defense: Serial Genealogy, AS9100 Traceability, and AI Audit Automation
On-premises for ITAR programs. Air-gapped where required.
Serial genealogy through production, special process cost capture, AS9100 audit documentation, and AI-powered audit response, connected to the ERP already running in the facility.
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Featured ›What Aerospace ERP Inventory Requires That Standard Inventory Management Does Not
ERP inventory management for an aerospace manufacturer is not a matter of tracking quantities and locations. It is a matter of maintaining a complete, auditable history of every serialized part, from raw material certification through every manufacturing operation, inspection, special process, and shipment.
And it has to do that in a format that satisfies AS9100 Rev D, ITAR, NADCAP, and customer flowdown requirements simultaneously. Four requirements separate aerospace ERP inventory from standard inventory management.
Most mid-market aerospace manufacturers have some of these record types in the ERP and the rest in paper or separate systems. The ERP holds the job cost record. The quality lab holds the CMM data. Shipping holds the certificate of origin. The NADCAP records sit in a filing cabinet.
Scattered Records → One Auditable Record
Serial genealogy requires all of them linked in one record. See our lot traceability software work for how that linkage gets built.
Serial Genealogy Through Production
Every serialized part needs a complete chain of custody: a raw material certificate of conformance, every routing operation, every inspection result, and every special process record.
Maintained as a live record rather than assembled from paper archives at audit time.
Special Process Cost Capture
NADCAP special processes, including heat treatment, NDT, chemical processing, and welding, must be captured against the specific operation and serial number.
Along with the NADCAP approval number of the processor.
Audit Documentation Generated From ERP Data
FAI packages, Certificate of Conformance documentation, and PPAP submissions need to come out of the production record.
Not get assembled by hand from scattered sources before delivery.
ITAR Data Handling
Technical data for ITAR-controlled articles, including drawings and process sheets, cannot sit in cloud-based systems.
The ERP and connected document management must run on-premises.
Serial Genealogy in ERP: What Complete Traceability Looks Like
Serial genealogy in aerospace ERP is the complete, electronically linked history of a serialized part, from its raw material source to its current location or last known shipment. A Tier 2 supplier facing a customer audit request has 24 to 48 hours to produce this record, not three days of archival research. A complete serial genealogy record in the ERP contains six pieces.
Raw Material
Certification number, heat or lot number, supplier name, PO, quantity and date received, C of C on file.
Manufacturing Routing
Each operation with work center, operator, dates, hours against standard, and nonconformance records.
Inspection Results
Dimensional data, CMM report reference, first article status, in-process results by operation.
Special Processes
NADCAP processor name and approval number, process spec and revision, certificate of conformance.
Engineering Revision
Drawing number and revision effectivity at time of manufacture, the as-built configuration.
Disposition
Shipment date, customer PO, quantity shipped, shipping C of C issued.
Special Process Cost Capture in Aerospace Job Costing
Special processes, including heat treatment, NDT, anodize, plating, and welding, are outside operations in the aerospace manufacturer's routing. Every routing step that leaves the facility for a special process needs to capture the outside processor, the NADCAP approval number, the cost, and the process specification. Most ERP job costing modules already handle outside processing costs. The gap is linking the NADCAP compliance data to that cost record.
PO Linked to the Operation
An outside processing purchase order linked to the specific job and routing operation, not a generic outside processing PO.
Approval Number on the Vendor
A NADCAP approval number stored against the outside processor vendor record, verified at PO creation, and flagged if the approval has expired.
Spec and Revision Enforced
A process specification number and revision stored against the routing operation, with the ERP enforcing that the operation cannot close without this data.
Cost by Serial, Not by Job
Cost captured by operation, so the NADCAP processing cost is allocated to the specific serial number rather than to the job in aggregate.
An AI layer monitoring the ERP's outside processing records can catch NADCAP approval expiry before a purchase order is issued.
Caught Before the PO, Not After the Audit
This prevents the part from going through an outside process under an expired approval.
Can you produce a serial genealogy record in 24 hours?
That is the customer audit window. Tell us which ERP you run and where the record breaks into paper today.
Book a Discovery Call→AS9100 Audit Documentation: From Manual Assembly to AI-Generated Packages
AS9100 Rev D audits do not just check whether documentation exists. They evaluate whether it is complete, current, and traceable to the production record. For a Tier 2 supplier with 500 active part numbers across 20 customer programs, assembling audit documentation by hand becomes a QA team's full-time job. AS9100 requires three things from the ERP record.
Product Conformity Record
A product conformity record showing the correct drawing revision.
And the completed NADCAP special processes for that part.
First Article Inspection Record
A First Article Inspection record under AS9102 for new or revised parts.
With special process certifications attached.
Design Authority Traceability
Design authority traceability, proving the part was built to the correct revision.
Rather than a superseded one.
This is where agentic AI changes the math. An agentic AI system receives an audit request, a customer program, a part number range, and a date window, then compiles the complete AS9100 package from ERP production data, inspection records, genealogy, and special process certificates in minutes. Without it, the same package takes a QA engineer two to five days of manual work across exports, paper records, and email attachments.
2 to 5 Days → Minutes
GrayCyan's air-gapped RAG AI deployment for a defense manufacturer made 40 years of engineering drawings and specifications searchable in seconds from a natural language query, fully on-premises. For manufacturers with decades of drawing history spread across multiple ERP and PDM systems, this cuts lookup time from 30 to 45 minutes down to seconds. See WMS for aerospace for the warehouse execution side of this history.
What GrayCyan Builds for Aerospace and Defense ERP Inventory
GrayCyan builds ERP inventory management augmentation for Tier 2 and Tier 3 aerospace and defense manufacturers.
It connects to the ERP already running in the facility, deploys on-premises for ITAR programs, and adds AI-powered audit response and drawing intelligence on top.
What that includes:
- Serial genealogy linkage: certifications, routing records, inspection results, and shipping records linked in a single auditable record instead of scattered across systems.
- NADCAP approval monitoring: an AI layer checking processor approval status against outside processing POs, flagging expired approvals before parts enter an outside process.
- AS9100 documentation generation: C of C, FAI, and PPAP documentation generated from ERP data, not assembled by hand before each delivery.
- Agentic audit response: an AI agent that compiles complete AS9100 packages from ERP data on demand in minutes.
- AI drawing and specification search: RAG AI over the drawing library and ERP history, returning results from natural language queries, on-premises and air-gapped where required.
- ITAR on-premises deployment: the full stack on facility-owned hardware, with no cloud dependency.
Every system is fully owned by the manufacturer at completion, with no recurring license fees. See manufacturing AI solutions for the AI components.
Who This Is Right For
Tier 2 and Tier 3 Suppliers
50 to 500 employees producing machined parts, assemblies, or special-process components under AS9100 certification.
ITAR-Controlled Programs
Manufacturers who cannot use cloud-based ERP augmentation.
Manual Audit Documentation
Operations where audit documentation is still assembled by hand before each delivery.
Decades of Unsearchable Drawings
Suppliers with drawing history not searchable across current ERP and PDM systems.
It is not the right fit for:
- Prime contractors or OEMs with enterprise IT organizations and existing ERP compliance infrastructure. Those buyers should look at independent ERP consulting instead.
- Aerospace MRO operations, which follow a different traceability model from manufacturing.
For the warehouse execution side of this problem, see WMS for aerospace.
Frequently Asked Questions: ERP Inventory for Aerospace and Defense
Need AS9100-Compliant ERP Inventory for an Aerospace or Defense Program?
Tell us which ERP you run, which certification frameworks apply (AS9100, ITAR, NADCAP), and where your audit documentation is still manual.
GrayCyan will show you what ERP inventory augmentation and AI audit automation looks like on your existing infrastructure.
See WMS for aerospace or start with our AI Readiness Assessment →