Program Requirements for AISC Certified

Erectors of Structural Steel

Published on October 31, 2014, Revised on February 20, 2015 (revisions underlined)

This document provides the Administrative Rules and Technical Regulations that govern the
AISC Certification Program for Structural Steel Erection. All participants and new applicants
will be held to these Requirements and the AISC Certification Program for Structural Steel
Erectors (Standard). When there is a conflict between these Requirements and the
Standard, this document will prevail for the AISC Structural Steel Erection Certification
Program. When a Rule or Requirement is not met an applicant, they may fail to progress
forward in the application process. If a Rule or Requirement is not met by a participant a
Corrective Action Request will be issued.

1. All applicants and participants, hereinafter referred to as participant are required

to comply with these Rules and Requirements, the AISC Certification Program
for Structural Steel Erectors (Standard), the AISC Progressive Action Policy for
Certification Complaints and Allegations (Complaint Policy), and the AISC Appeal
Policy for Certification Determination (Appeal Policy) in effect at the time of the
audit.

2. This Program issues certifications as Certified Steel Erector.

3. The endorsements listed below will be available to participants.

a. Seismic Erection Endorsement (Standard section 3.2)
b. Metal Deck Installation Endorsement (Standard section 3.3)
c. Bridge Erection Endorsement (See 4 below)

4. The requirements for the bridge erection endorsement are contained in section
3.4 of the Standard and AASHTO/NSBA Steel Bridge Erection Guide
Specification.

5. An application, program fees, documentation audit and site audit are all
mandatory requirements. Participants must submit a current Certificate of Liability
Insurance naming the American Institute of Steel Construction, LLC and Quality
Management Company, LLC as additional entities covered by the insurance and
Waiver of Indemnity Agreement annually.

6. A Certification Cycle is as follows:

a. Initial Certification (INIT)/ or a Full Certification Renewal (FULL)
b. First Continued Certification Renewal (CCR1)
c. Second Continued Certification Renewal (CCR2)

7. This Certification Program applies to erectors of structural steel as defined by the

AISC Code of Standard Practice.
8. The functions of structural steel erection include the following: project planning,
material receipt, hoisting, alignment, final connection (bolting and welding),
safety, and project records.

9. Participants that are not performing at least 3 job site functions identified in
requirement 8 during the site audit shall perform mock exercises to demonstrate
their capabilities. Mock exercises may only be performed for a particular function
if mock exercises were not performed for that same function at the previous
company site audit for the company. This requirement does not waive the
erector from doing these functions. It just allows for mock exercises when they
are not being performed on the exact day that the onsite audit is being
performed.

10. Participants must have an active job-site in the United States of America that can
be visited to conduct the site audit.

11. All participants are required to submit a quality and safety manual that includes
all required procedures and records per sections 5.6.2 and 20.1.1 of the
Standard. This manual(s) shall be submitted at the initial application. The
manual(s) must be available for a documentation audit at every FULL audit.
AISC also reserves the right to request that a participant submit these documents
for review at any time during a participant’s Certification Cycle and during any
audit. AISC does not prescribe the format of the participants Quality and Safety
Manuals.

12. The participant must demonstrate that its QCI (as defined in Chapter N in
ANSI/AISC 360 - 2010) are qualified per all applicable codes for erection
functions. All QCI qualifications, experience and training requirements must be
defined in the participant’s quality manual.

13. All quality and safety employees of the participant may be permanent employees
of the participant or a contractor. In the case of the latter, contract status of the
employee must be demonstrable.

14. A bolt demonstration will be required of participants at every initial and full on-site
audit as follows:
a. For general erection the demonstration shall comply with RCSC
Pre-Installation Verification
b. Participants seeking the bridge endorsement shall additionally
comply with Appendix D of the AASHTO/NSBA Steel Bridge
Erection Guide Specification for Rotational Capacity Testing.

15. Initial applicants must complete a full internal audit in accordance with this
Standard with the resulting findings and corrective actions completed prior to the
site audit. The participant must also perform their management review per
element 5.3 of the Standard prior to the site audit. Full documentation of the
 audit(s) must be submitted showing when the audit(s) took place, the person(s)
performing the audit(s) and all of the elements/requirements audited and the
associated results. Full management review meeting minutes showing all
requirements discussed and action taken along with a completed sign-in list must
be submitted.

16. A continuing participant must complete a full internal audit in accordance with the
Standard a minimum of 90 days prior to their certificate expiring. The participant
must perform their management review per section 5.3 of the Standard prior to
the site audit. Full documentation of the audit(s) must be submitted showing
when the audit(s) took place, the person(s) performing the audit(s) and all of the
requirements audited and the associated results. Full meeting minutes showing
all requirements discussed and action taken along with a completed sign-in list
must be submitted. The participant may perform one comprehensive audit for all
the audit requirements or perform several audits each with partial scope of the
audit requirements throughout the year.

17. AISC selects the date for all certification site audits. The participant will then be
notified of the audit date. Rescheduled audits will be charged a rescheduling fee
and must be completed within 90 days of the initial AISC date.

18. Participants must notify AISC Certification of any potential conflict of interest with
the assigned auditor within 5 business days of receiving notice of their auditor, so
that the audit can be reassigned. If this does not occur, the audit will be
rescheduled at the participant’s expense.

19. After each site audit is completed and resulting Corrective Action Requests have
been addressed, the participant’s file, which includes audit results and trends, will
be reviewed by AISC’s Certification Review Group (CRG) along with any
evidence, complaints and/or allegations that AISC has received. AISC reserves
the right to deny certification to a participant based on this review process.
Certification reviews that are not final by the CRG may not be appealed by the
participant.

20. The AISC Certification Review Group may choose to grant certification to a
participant for six months if it is determined through the Certification Review
Group’s evaluation that an additional audit (documentation or site) is required.
An additional audit may be requested but is not limited to when the CRG
requires on-site verification that a corrective action request has been addressed
and effectively implemented. The cost of the additional audit will be borne by the
participant.

21. Participants that are denied certification may not re-apply to the AISC
Certification program prior to six months from the last site audit date. Certification
fees will not be refunded for denial of certification.
22. Any finding of falsification of records or procedures will trigger an immediate
suspension of the certification process.

23. During the application and renewal process including but not limited to the
administration/application review, documentation audit, and site audit, all
correspondence, discussions and interviews will be conducted solely and directly
with the participant. Observers may be present but shall not influence the audit
process or the outcome as determined by the auditor.

24. All documents required for the certification program application and renewal
process are required to be submitted electronically by the participant in English.
Documents including the application must be submitted in a total of 10 or less
PDF files. These files can either be emailed to [email protected] or sent on
a flash drive to the address listed below. Hard copies will not be accepted for any
certification process:

AISC Erector Certification Program

One East Wacker Drive, Suite 700
Chicago, IL 60601

25. Interpreters must be provided by the participant for the auditors’ communication
when necessary during the site audit. The interpreters must also be
knowledgeable of appropriate industry terminology.

26. An erector’s certificate will cover their regional office or operations only if all of
the following conditions are met:
a. The regional office or operation is doing business under the same
company name.
b. The Executive Management is the same as for the main office.
c. The Quality and Safety Management Systems are the same as what
was audited for the main office and project site.

27. AISC must be notified within 30 days when any of the following information is
changed: ownership, representative for quality, representative for safety,
principle officer, company address, company mailing address, company regional
office address, website contact and accounts payable. Notification is to occur
through AISC Certification’s online form. This form can be found at
www.aisc.org/certification. The participant’s AISC valid unique ID must be
included with the submission. All changes are subject to AISC Certification
review, and may result in additional audit or certification activities including
withdrawal of certification at participant's expense.

28. During a participant’s certification cycle company information will be posted by

AISC as it relates to the certifications and endorsements (scope) held by a
 participant and status of their certification. This includes renewed, suspended,
withdrawn, and reduced scope and duration certifications.

29. Participants can submit a scope change application at any time during their
certification cycle. Once a completed scope change application is submitted
(including application, required prerequisites and payment), participant must go
through an administrative review, documentation audit and site audit. Additional
audits for the scope change shall be at the participant's expense and will be a
FULL audit scope.

30. Participants are required to submit the following company safety records:
Workers’ Compensation experience modification factor, the OSHA Recordable
Incident Rate and the OSHA Lost Work Day Incident Rate. These shall be
submitted with the initial application and at every FULL audit.