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Contact, Questions
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CB - certification Body
Condensed info. Questions and remarks are welcome.Mission
Conduct impartial, competent and
consistent
certification assessments
resulting in a credible certificate.
As stated in the standard
17021 this also implies:
- Openness:
to provide public access to, or disclosure of, appropriate information
- Responsiveness to complaints: Parties that rely on certification
can issue a complaint to a certification about a certified
organization and expect to have the complaint investigated.
Structure
A certification body can be accredited by one or more accreditation
bodies (countries) which are recognized or not. (free market)
The confidence in a certificate varies of course with the operating
chain (see picture).
The standard, ISO17021 requires that a certification body
identifies
and implement structures for ensuring:
- impartiality, and being perceived to be impartial (finances,
outsourced services , ... ),
- adequate resources (expertise, competent, geographical, type of
certification, sectors)
An interesting issue in the standard is that a
certification body need to do a risk assessment with interested parties to advice on matters
of
openness and public perception.
The decision of granting a certificate is taken by an
independent board /group of persons based on sufficient objective
evidence (the audit report)
Work flow
In general the assessment process to become certified is:
- Application for certification: Agreement/contract
- Assignment of a qualified auditor(s)
- Pre assessment: (stage1)
- Opening meeting:
- providing information about: audit process, corrective action, appeals
,
complaints of ISO certified organizations , granting/suspending,/withdrawing of a certificate
,
- Review of : scope, document and record.
- Report and Corrective action request
- Audit planning (stage2)
- On-site assessment against the standard
(stage2)
- Verify the organization response to the corrective action
requests
- Conduct the audit as planned
- Close-out meeting to ensure that the auditee understands the
findings (it doesn't mean agreed!!)
- Conclusion: recommendation for certification
- Report and Corrective action request
- Re-assessment audit plan
- Evaluation of the organization response to the corrective action
requests
- Decision-making and granting certification
- Appeals against the decision
- Re-assessment and surveillance audits
Finance
Financial data can be found as required by national regulationsFinancial issues
(payment of fees , balance , ...),
can lead to a suspension or withdrawal of the
accreditation as it is as a threat for impartiality.
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ISO BENCHMARK - ISO 9001 - ISO14001