A non-conformance report (NCR) documents a product, part or material that does not meet its specified requirements: what was found, how much is affected, and the disposition decided for it. Quality systems such as the one 14 CFR 21.137 requires of aviation production approval holders must identify, document, evaluate, segregate and disposition nonconforming products.
Why it matters when licensing company data
Under 21.137, only authorized individuals may make disposition decisions, discarded articles must be made unusable, and the quality system must include corrective and preventive action to remove the cause of a nonconformity. In practice an NCR often opens a corrective action or an 8D investigation that records the root cause and the fix.
Years of NCRs linked to part numbers, drawing revisions, corrective actions and change orders show how a manufacturer finds and fixes problems. That chain from defect to cause to change is the part of a quality archive that is hard to recreate, and it is easier to describe when each NCR carries the same part and revision fields as the drawing and change records.
See the NCR template and examples and the 8D report example.
Example
An inspector finds that a batch of machined brackets has holes drilled out of position. She raises an NCR with the part number, drawing revision, quantity affected and a photo. The review board decides to scrap ten parts and rework the rest, and opens a corrective action that traces the cause to a worn fixture. When the manufacturer later describes its quality records, it counts how many NCRs link to a corrective action and a drawing change.
Source
14 CFR 21.137, Quality system (eCFR). Definition reviewed November 9, 2026 by Origin Data Partners.