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| ISO is the International Organization for Standardization situated in Geneva
Switzerland. Because "International Organization for Standardization" would
have different abbreviations in different languages ("IOS" in English, "OIN" in
French for Organisation internationale de normalisation), it was decided at the
outset to use a word derived from the Greek isos, meaning "equal". Therefore,
whatever the country, whatever the language, the short form of the
organization's name is always ISO. ISO is in charge of issuing international
standards that different countries can adopt, ranging from quality and
environmental management systems to product or material specific standards. The
main purpose is that all of the standards that ISO issues have been approved by
its 157 member countries making them truly international. |
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| There are several standards out there. The most famous and proliferate is ISO
9001 which is the standard for a Quality Management System. Some standards are
not issued by ISO but by other organizations (for example OHSAS 18001) but are
still recognized by many countries as valid standards.
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| Actually no. Although there is an ISO 9000 standard, it is only a glossary of
definitions to use with the certifiable standard ISO 9001. A similar case is
that of ISO 14000 and OHSAS 18000; they are documents that support the
certifiable standards ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.
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| The Scope of Certification is the description of the activities that the
company performs that will be covered under the certification. In other words,
it is the description of what you do. Examples are: Distribiution of Circuit
Breakers, Manufacture of Widgets, Transportation of Hazardous Materials, etc.
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| The companies that certify or register companies to the different
standards (i.e. ISO 9001, ISO 14001, etc) are known as Certifiers or
Registrars since they in fact keep a registry of all the companies that
have achieved the certification. Independence is key for these companies, so
they act as third parties meaning that they do not represent any interested
party (you or your client) except themselves and the accreditation body that
they represent. |
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| Each country has an accreditation body that represents and enforces the
interpretation and implementation of the ISO standards in that country (or
countries). The Accreditation Body accredits the Registrars or Certifiers
in order to certify companies to the international standards. The accreditation
body gives credibility to the Registrar since the registrar needs to comply
with certain rules that are verified by the accreditation body. The
accreditation body is in most cases (although this is not the case in the
United States) a government entity. The US accreditation body is ANAB. It is
important to select an accreditation body that has recognition internationally.
The American as well as most of the European accreditations are members of the
International Accreditation Forum, therefore, any of those accreditation bodies
ensure that your certificate will be recognized nationally and internationally.
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| Respected registrars follow the International Accreditation Forum Guide 62 as
their main rule for assigning the number of days to a particular job. This has
been done in order to ensure that registrars are on site a minimum number of
days to do an appropriate audit. You should be weary of registrars that give
you too few days or too many days compared to others. This is another reason
why it is important to always compare quotes. |
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| This depends on the registrar but most registrars that are accredited to
certify companies to more than one standard do offer the possibility of having
integrated audits.
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| Most registrars offer their services on a plus expenses basis. Some do
offer an all inclusive bid but this does not necessarily mean that it is a
better deal for you since the registrar has to include their travel expenses on
their bid, and they usually err on the side of caution, making this choice more
expensive in the long run for you.
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| Accreditation fees are the fees that registrars have to pay to the
Accreditation Body in order to issue a certificate with their name on it.
This is a common practice if you require to be certified by more than one
accreditation (i.e. the American and the German accreditations) but more and
more registrars are waiving this fee if you only need one accreditation.
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| This will depend if your auditor is a full time employee with your registrar.
Many registrars hire contractors or independent experts to perform audits for
them. This works well for the registrars since they only have to pay their
contractors if they have work for them. In the case that your auditor is NOT a
full time employee, it is very common for auditors to work for more than one
registrar, so it is entirely possible that you could change registrars and
still keep your same auditor.
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| Yes! Most registrars accept the certificates of other accredited registrars.
The requirements vary from registrar to registrar but most require you to
submit a copy of your current certificate, copy of last audit report and
assurance that you do not have any outstanding major non conformances with your
current registrar. |
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| This depends on the registrar but more often than not, this will NOT be
possible. One of the common requirements when changing registrars is that the certified company does not have any major non conformances open with their current
registrar. Still, this does not mean that you will not be able to change
registrars but it does mean that the new registrar might want to do a full
audit rather than accept the previous registrars certificate.
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| Yes! Most registrars do not have a problem with the transfer of certificates
if you have only minor non conformances, provided that you can provide a copy
of your current valid certificate, a copy of the last audit report and action
plans to close out the minor non conformities.
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| Yes! Most accredited registrars will accept the Stage 1 audit from another
accredited registrar if you provide them with the Stage 1 report issued by the
previous registrar and actions items to address the issues raised during the
Stage 1 audit.
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A Stage 1 audit is performed in order to ensure that the design of your
system conforms to the requirements of the selected standard. For quality
management system audits this review is sometimes known as a Desk Study and
is performed at the registrars' office. For other management system audits
(like environmental or health and safety) the review needs to take place on-site.
A Stage 2 audit is performed only after a successful Stage 1 audit has been
completed. This audit focuses on the implementation and on the effectiveness of
the management system being audited. It is at the conclusion of this stage that
the organization is either recommended for certification or given additional
time to correct major issues that resulted from the audit before being
recommended for certification.
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| The certification is usually good for three years from the initial
certification audit. At the end of the three year period, if your organization
still wants to be certified, it is necessary to perform a recertification audit
which is usually 2/3 the time of the initial audit. But that does not mean that
you wont see the auditors for three years; registrars will perform
surveillance audits. |
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| A surveillance audit is an audit that takes place usually either every 6
months or on an annual basis. These audits are about 1/3 the time of the
initial audit and are conducted in order to ensure that the management system
is maintained and operating effectively in accordance to the requirements of
the certified standard.
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