 | certification (7) |
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blogs - certification
Below are the blogs of managing consultant John Mason. Please enjoy, comment, challenge.
One of the best tools you can invest in for your up and coming quality management system certification audit is to generate an auditor friendly 'road map'. More accurately a cross reference table that lists the lements of the ISO 9001 standard and then lists next to each element were in your quality management system is the corresponding procedure, policy, data, records. You can be as brief or as detailed as you wish so long as it is pure quality speak, pure auditor friendly, standard friendly, yet accurate.
Did you know that there is one company in the whole wide world who can issue a quality management system certificate to ISO 9001:2008 with those 5 white ticks. Yes, only one. Did you know that that certification service provider is only one of thirty plus service providers, just in Australia. There are hundreds world wide. And each and every one of them uses a different 'certification logo', different certification brand.
Each certification body has a different process for booking an audit. Some are more difficult than others and you need to find out very early in the selection process what their process is so that you can compare the service delivery to your expectations. Some guidelines to the various expectations include. If you have more than one site in more than one state, ask for a 'national coordinator'. Find out what are the lead times for making a request for an audit. Some certification bodies have very strict engagement rules and quite specific requirements for the records generated before a certification audits can take place. What is the lead time for changing an audit date?
Do you have to accept the proposed auditor? In a word, no. However it depends on the certification body on whether this is easy or hard. However, you really should have a valid reason not to accept the proposed auditor or to change the one you have. Here are just a few; they don't seem to have the industry experience, they don't relate to company personnel very well, their reporting is not to the agreed requirement....
Choosing one
Choose a certification provider as you would any other service provide and base your decision on price, service and quality. But remember, you can only ever really have 2 of 3 of the above attributes. The video in this newsletter will help you decide.
So now you are one, what’s next?
The following is a cut and paste from the quality manual
5.5.2 Management representative
Top management has appointed the [title of person] who, irrespective of other responsibilities, has the following responsibilities and authorities:
a) ensuring that processes needed for the quality management system are established, implemented and maintained,
b) reporting to top management on the performance of the quality management system and any need for improvement, and
c) ensuring the promotion of awareness of customer requirements throughout your company.
Well, do you?
I am afraid there is no easy answer to this one. However, I can say that having quality certification DOES NOT guarantee you will win government work.
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