WHAT ARE THEY ?
These types of standards generally set out clear rules or guidelines for the conduct of certain activities or for the design and manufacture of certain products and services.
ISO standards are those created or adopted from other standards sources by the Internaltional Standards Organisation.
See also Quality & ISO 9001: 2008, Health, Safety & OHSAS 18001, Environment & ISO 14001, Integrated Mgt. Systems.
BS (British Standards) are those similarly created or adoped from other sources by the BSI (British Standards Institute).
EN (European Normalisation) standards are those created by or adopted by the CEN (Centre for European Normalisation) for common use in the European Community.
Many other countries throughout the world have their own 'local' national standards bodies or instead adopt and use standards originating from other appropriate countries and bodies. The standards bodies may be independent or quasi-independent of direct government control but it is usually the case that governments recognise and acknowledge the ouput of these standards organisations.
The standards bodies themselves may also provide inspection / assessment services designed to validate the work or products of your business or organisation. There are many other commercial inspection / assessment organisations that seek to sell their services i.e. to issue certification as proof of the quality and authenticity of your organisation's output. These firms are generally called certification bodies.
In turn, 'who watches the watchers ?' - To give some credibility to these certification bodies (many of which operate in a highly commercial manner, in spite of the apparent non-commercial 'front' presented by some of them) they are (if they wish to volunteer) 'policed'. This policing makes their work and the registration certificates they provide as a result of their inspection / assessment work, more markeatble and commercially credible.
This additional credibility is called 'accreditation'. It means that if you are awarded an (appropriately) accredited certificate for your product or service or activity, your customers and potential customers will recognise the validity of your company or organisation - that you are not perceived as a 'cowboy' and your output or organisational approach is of a recognised quality standard. Examples of accreditation bodies are mentioned in the next section below.
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GAINING & CHANGING OVER TO PROPER ISO, BS & CE CERTIFICATION
Do YOU WANT to GAIN or MAINTAIN certification / registration with a RECOGNISED, certification / inspection body ? i.e. one that is accredited by UKAS (for the UK), RAB (for the USA) and other national government associated accreditation organisations.
Do YOU WANT to CHANGE from your UNaccredited or INappropriately accredited certification body ? - YOU KNOW THE ONES - they often show a TICK symbol in their certification logo but WITH NO CROWN symbol (repesenting HM the Queen's crown) AND NO REFERENCE to UKAS !
I'LL MAKE IT AS SIMPLE & PAINLESS as possible to CONVERT from your existing UNaccredited ISO 9001or to the NEW ISO 9001: 2008 with, for example, a UKAS accredited certification body such as BSI or SGS or Lloyds or NQA or ANY ONE of the MANY SMALLER, CHEAPER but RECOGNISED inspection organisations
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FLOWCHARTING YOUR WHOLE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
In 2002, I completed a project for a manufacturing firm in Suffolk, part of a German-based manufacturing group, to flowchart its complete documented quality system and in doing so to comply also with ISO 9001.
This CLIENT was DELIGHTED THAT I ACHIEVED ALL THE AGREED OBJECTIVES with the BONUS outcome of an August 2002 assessment of the NEW system by SGS Yarsley, resulting in NO noncompliances - see Recommendations.
The client's original and main concern was that the (then existing) system was extremely user-UNfriendly and was a MAJOR BURDEN to maintain. The main objective was that I provide a chart-based system that would LOOK ATTRACTIVE, BE USER FRIENDLY and THAT EVERYONE IN THE COMPANY WOULD BUY INTO.
For technical information and some of my own opinions on 'official' standards (I do NOT necessarily agree with or recommend all such standards) - see Quality & ISO 9001: 2008, Health, Safety & OHSAS 18001, Environment & ISO 14001, Integrated Mgt. Systems.
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WARNING !
UNACCREDITED ISO & BS CERTIFICATION / REGISTRATION (to 9001, 14001, etc.)
This is important as I DO NOT CONDONE and wholeheartedly DO NOT RECOMMEND the use of certification bodies that do NOT have the APPROPRIATE, GOVERNMENT - associated / recognised accreditation FOR THE COUNTRY IN WHICH THEY OPERATE e.g. if you do NOT see the 'Crown & Tick' logo as part of the ISO 9001 or 9002 logo displayed by a company trading in the UK then it may be that the certificate is NOT accredited by the UK's UKAS authority. It is also important to make clear that unaccredited certification bodies may be operating entirely legally and ethically but the simple fact that they do NOT have the appropriate accreditation means that a number of BUYERS will NOT consider procuring products or services from a SUPPLIER with an UNACCREDITED ISO 9001 or 9002 certificate OR they will not place any credibility in such a certificate, Such Buyers may STILL procure from the SUPPLIER because they do not consider these particular ISO standards as being important anyway (even though their pre-qualification questionnaires or tender questions may give the opposite impression) - this is particularly the case with very small Suppliers who provide specialist services and who the Buyer prefers to use anyway. Before taking on ANY certification service, ASK if they are UKAS accredited or if they are accredited by another relevant country's government-recognised accreditation body.
You could be BETTER OFF WITHOUT ANY TYPE OF ISO 9000 / ISO 14000 certificate AT ALL rather than paying an expensive fee for an UNACCREDITED or INAPPROPRIATELY ACCREDITED certificate. If you would like more information about this situation, contact UKAS direct or ANY UKAS accredited certification body. UKAS will provide you with a list of many certification bodies that they HAVE accredited.
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