We are ISO/TS registered. We have a new steel supplier who's price we cannot beat. They are certified to ISO 9001:2000, but their certificate does not have an accredidation logo on it. Is there a place i can go to see if they are accredidted?

We are ISO/TS registered. We have a new steel supplier who's price we cannot beat. They are certified to ISO 9001:2000, but their certificate does not have an accredidation logo on it. Is there a place i can go to see if they are accredidted?

Here is one place to go: http://www.anab.org/ and search the accredited certification bodies and see if they are listed. There is a possibility that maybe there was a mistake on the Certificate of Registration, so verify the CB before possible action.

By the way I have moved this post, to this forum.

They are not listed there. I will have a hard time getting management not to buy from them

They are not listed there. I will have a hard time getting management not to buy from them

I guess my next question is:

Do you really need a metal supplier to have a Registered System?

Well, how critical is it that they are registered by an accreditted organization? Is it required by YOUR registration, or only by your own procedures? If it is imperative that your supplier hold an accreditted registration, then your company really does not have much choice, does it? Unless, they do not mind losing their registration, or their customer????:notme:

eta: when you say a steel supplier - are you purchasing direct from a mill or are you purchasing through a warehouse? Most mills anymore are ISO registered by an accreditted body.

IMHO, dealing with a non-accredited supplier is O.K, as long as you management understand the risk. For example, if it's non-accredited, the auditor may not have even turned up on site, let alone been knowledgable of steel quality processes. Furthermore, you will probably have to take on the burden of periodically (or even every time) performing some kind of test on the quality of the steel (physical properties, metallurgy etc) to verify it, because you can't trust the supplier, can you? You may even have to do an audit yourself, and the sanctioned interpreatations now say that audit has to meet ISO 17021 requirements (I think) so, it's got to look like a third party audit, essentially...........

If your management understand the costs of all these apsects, does the price look so good now??

Andy

I think the point of this question is that TS16949 clause 7.4.1.2 requires suppliers to be registered to ISO 9001 by an accredited certification body unless the customer specifies otherwise.

There's another thread somewhere started recently by, I think, Sidney Vianna, which refers to an interpretation allowing second party assessments. Look up the thread rather than relying, somewhat dangerously, on my memory but an audit by you might be an alternative.

Or I might just get some pointed comments about my memory.

Or I might just get some pointed comments about my memory.

Don't worry, you'll soon forget them!!:biglaugh:

I think the point of this question is that TS16949 clause 7.4.1.2 requires suppliers to be registered to ISO 9001 by an accredited certification body unless the customer specifies otherwise.Exactly. TS requires supplier development which might include supplier certification to ISO 9001 by an ACCREDITED CB. If the certificate does not bear the mark from a recognized accreditation body, 99.99% chances that the certificate is NOT accredited. Please note that there is a difference between the supplier certificate not being accredited and the CB which issued that certificate not being accredited. On another thread, I voice my ire over accredited CB's issuing unaccredited certificates to circumvent the accreditation rules...:mad:

It could very well be one of those certs where you send in $500 along with your manual and get registered that way.

It wouldn't be an American Global Standards cert would it? They've owed me about $500 since 2003.

My first thought is that the Steel Supplier may be "self certified". And that they are trying to pass it off as being registered by an anoymnmous registrar. They may have also paid some consultant that isn't a registrar to actually audit them. Have you looked at their website for any clues?

If they gave you their certificate by e-mail, someone's e-mail may have HTML turned off and only could pass on the text portion. It is fairly easy to say I need current copies of your ISO and Liability Insurance certificates BEFORE we pay any invoices. :tg: