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Accreditation
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Standards From
REGISTRATION TO THE RELEVANT MANAGEMENT STANDARD
Q: How do we become Registered?
- Document, develop, train and fully implement of the relevant Management System
- Formal Accreditation to the Standard following successful Assessment by a selected independent 'Certification Organisation'.
Q: Who are Certification Organisations?
These are independent organisations assessed and registered by Government set up Accreditation Bodies - UKAS in the UK, RAB in the USA for example.
All Certification Organisations should be:- Independent from the Accreditation Bodies
- Independent of the organisations that they assessed/registered
- Checked and Registered by UKAS, RAB or equivalent national Accreditation Body
- Independent of the consultancy assisting the documentation & implementation of the ISO 9001 or other Standard
Certification Organisations in the UK fall into the following main groupings:
- Large international multi-disciplinary bodies such as BSI, NQA, SGS Yardsley, Lloyds Register, Bureau Veritas, TUV
- Industry specific bodies such as Loss Prevention Certification Board, etc
- Smaller Certification bodies such as ISOQAR etc
Q: Who are UKAS and RAB?
UKAS stands for the United Kingdom Accreditation Service which was founded by the UK Government (Department of Trade and Industry) to assess, audit and if successful, register Certification Organisations.
Most countries have their own equivalent Government authorised Accreditation Body such as RAB in the USA.
The Accreditation Bodies check and approve the individual Certification Organisations like BSI, BVQI, Lloyds and TUV.
Q: What is it going to Cost?
- Documentation costs depend on which system or templates you use and your time.
- Certification Bodies fees depend upon primarily on the size of the organisation but have significantly fallen over the last 4/5 years.
Q: What's the Return?
The evidence is that implementation costs are an investment with the return of cost advantages and other improvements gained by better methods, improved productivity, reduction of waste and better management control. Achieving successful Assessment and Certification also assists in retaining existing Customers and in gaining new Customer.
Q: Isn't it all bureaucracy?
It is important that the system is practical, straight forward and understandable by all as well as shared and adopted throughout the organisation. Bureaucratic, complicated, and burdensome system will be inefficient and problems will inevitably be experienced. Please note that since the upgrade to the ISO 9001: 2000 Standard, there is less emphasis on documentation and record keeping for each Management System Standard.
Q: Will this impact upon responsiveness & flexibility?
No. Reputations are frequently built upon a rapid and flexible response to Customers. It simply means that a sound but common sense Management system is in place to cater for these circumstances to ensure that delivery meets Customer's requirements.
Q: How much time does all this take?
Working to an externally assessed Management system should save both time and money because it encourages "Doing things right, first time every time". This will more than compensate for the upkeep of system records which should be maintained on a "little but often basis".
Q: What happens after Registration?
The Certification Organisation will conduct periodic (usually once a year) surveillance audits to check that the Management System is being followed. In adopting a systematic approach, the organisation will discover that achieving and sustaining the Management system is a never ending but profitable process.
Q: When should we start?
It is appreciated that often:
- There exists a limited budget allocation for business and 'Quality' improvement
- Resource, time and effort are simply not available to take on anything new
- Dealing with a full order book or trying to fill the order book takes every hour
- Organisations are already fully committed to activities related to new products, services, markets, staff, premises, operations etc
There is, perhaps never the right time in to commit to any additional activity. However, ISO 9001 and other Standards should provide a systematic solution to cope better and extend operational capability and provide the means to handle change. The sooner you start, the sooner you can benefit from Accreditation.
An ISO 9001 and other Standards decision is a straight forward commercial investment to produce a solid return and business gain.
Q: Many of our Competitors / Suppliers are ISO Registered and it hasn't done them much good!
ISO 9001 and other Standards are not miracle cures; it provides the structure and route to improved quality but without vision, drive and enthusiasm, ISO 9001 can not ensure that the correct destination is always reached. Change and improvement often takes time to evolve, a donkey may never win a blood stock cup, but it will win in a donkey derby!
ISO 9001 and other Standards are tools; how the tool is used, depends on the organisation especially senior management.
Q: What is the difference between ISO 9001: 2000 and 9001 /2 /3: 1994?
ISO 9001: 1994 (as well as ISO 9002 and ISO 9003) certificates became void on 16th December 2003 and were superseded by ISO 9001: 2000.
The reason for the change was to make the Standard more relevant to business. This resulted in a change in emphasis:
- CUSTOMER SATISFACTION EMPHASIS
- LESS MANUFACTURING ORIENTED
- MORE PROCESS EMPHASIS
- MONITOR v MEASURABLE OBJECTIVES
- CONTINUING IMPROVEMENT REQUIRED
- SKILLS AND COMPETENCY (instead of Training Records)
Note: All activities affecting the Customer now need to be included and any exclusion has to be specifically justified.