Selecting a Certification Body and Applying for Certification/Registration
Keshav Ram Singhal
An organization, preparing for certification/registration of its ISO 9001:2015 QMS, should contact certification/registration bodies at an early stage of its ISO 9001:2015 QMS implementation project. If your organization is new to implement the quality management system, it may be assumed that your organization will need a minimum of 3 to 6 months time to get your quality management system and its implementation in place. The minimum time will also depend upon the number of sites you wish to certify. If your organization has more than one office, you may begin by obtaining QMS certification at one office only or you may have more than one site certified at once. If you choose to obtain certification formore thn one site, then you may require more efforts and time.
The first work is to choose a certification body from which you will obtain the QMS certification. A number of certification bodies are operating in our country, so you have a wide choice to select a certification body.
In India, National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB), linked to Quality Council of India (QCI), grants accreditation to certification bodies. In addition to this, many foreign accreditation bodies have also granted accreditation to certification bodies operating in India. Some of the foreign accreditation bodies are:
- UKAS - United Kingdom Accreditation Service
- RvA - Raad voor Accredatie (The Dutch Council of Accreditation)
- ANAB - ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board
- JAS-ANZ - Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand
- SCC - Standards Council of Canada
- JAB - Japan Accreditation Board
- IAR - IAR Accreditation Service
There are accreditation bodies in neighbouring countries too, some of which are:
- CNAS - China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment
- PNAC - Pakistan National Accreditation Council
- SLAB - Sri Lanka Accreditation Board for Conformity Assessment
Many of the certification bodies are the members of International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and these certification bodies agree to the IAF Multilateral Recognition Agreement (MLA) recognizing the equivalence of other embers' accreditation to their own.
There are more than fifty certification bodies operating in India, which have been granted accreditation either from NABCB or from any other foreign accreditation body. In such a situation, first you should collect information about the certification bodies operating in your country and then you should contact the certification bodies with brief description about your organization, nature of your business and your assessment requirements. You should also find out whether the certification body is accredited to provide certification in your area of business. Since there are too many certification bodies operating in our country, you need to select a certification body, for which you should know the details of certification services and cost of certification. Therefore it is better to write letters or send emails to several certification bodies asking their certification services and cost of certification. Upon receipt of your letter/email, the certification body will advise you the certification process and a quotation for the costs including the certification fee. Accordingly, you will have quotations from several certification bodies and you will be in a position to decide a certification body by hich you will obtain ISO 9001:2015 QMS certification.
Please note that while deciding a certification body, don't just go for a cheap or non-accredited certification. Quotation will normally include a one-time certification fee (covering a period of three years), costs per day of auditing work (before, during and after certification), travel and other expenses. The number of workdays required for each audit will depend on the size of operation and the location of the organization to be audited.
.... To be continued
For Training Handbook on ISO 9001:2015 QMS Awareness, please Click Here
For Training Handbook on ISO 9001:2015 QMS Implementation in a School, please Click Here
No comments:
Post a Comment