My (small) company has been ISO 9001:2000 certified for almost two years. Earlier this year management made a conscious decision to let our certification lapse. Now, after a change in management and a month and a half before our next periodic audit, management has decided that the certification is important again.

Our problem is twofold: first, we have not been properly maintaining our QMS over the last six months, e.g. no internal audits, no formal meetings, etc., and second, our registrar (or at the very least our auditor) has been so difficult to work with that we have investigated switching registrars.

So, here are my questions:

1. Should we go forward with the scheduled periodic audit knowing that we will have major nonconformances and will likely not be able to address them within the thirty days following the audit, and what are the consequences of this?
2. Should we let our certification lapse and start over with a new registrar, and what are the consequences of this?

Thank you for your consideration,
Royalisimo

No one can answer this question for you. It is a decision for your management.

However, I see no reason why in 6 weeks you couldn't correct nearly any deficiencies, and put systems into place to prevent them occurring again.

The issue of a difficult auditor should be taken up with your certification body customer contact person.

IMHO, from a practical perspective, why bother with going through this with the current CB when you know you're going to change?

Take your time to fix the system and get it running properly and, start your search for your new CB, using your experience of the other one to guide you to the right questions.

There are little to no consequences. The new CB might want to start from scratch, if it's been a while since your system was 'up and running', even if it was an accredited CB you used before.

Interview your CB candidates, see what they'd have to say about it......;);):notme:

1. Should we go forward with the scheduled periodic audit knowing that we will have major nonconformances and will likely not be able to address them within the thirty days following the audit, and what are the consequences of this?

No, and there is no consequences.

2. Should we let our certification lapse and start over with a new registrar, and what are the consequences of this?

A new complete assessment with both the Stage 1 and Stage 2 assessment


Note: I have added to the thread title.

Thanks, AndyN. Our main concern is how this appears to our customers. Does it "look" better to struggle through the existing situation? The only reason we would bother going through with the current certification body is to avoid losing the certification temporarily and trying to effectively communicate the situation to customers.

Thanks, AndyN. Our main concern is how this appears to our customers. Does it "look" better to struggle through the existing situation? The only reason we would bother going through with the current certification body is to avoid losing the certification temporarily and trying to effectively communicate the situation to customers.

I am not answering for AndyN here, but here is my :2cents::

In my opinion...don't worry about this. Most Customers just want the organization to show Registration.

It is better to start identifying and addressing problems. Why not do an extensive internal audit NOW? Then take the results and start working on them.

Does the new management want to maintain certification without a lapse? You may have your work cut out for you, but identifying problems and addressing them now might just let you do that.

I suspect paralysis by analysis may set in. Get to work.

Thanks, AndyN. Our main concern is how this appears to our customers. Does it "look" better to struggle through the existing situation? The only reason we would bother going through with the current certification body is to avoid losing the certification temporarily and trying to effectively communicate the situation to customers.

Your customer probably won't 'see' it and most ANAB accredited CB's have a process to take over another's certificate. Trust me, there's no good reason to push to fix things up, it sets the wrong 'tone' for any auditor that comes along later, tells your people that you only do this for the certificate and, given the circumstances of change over, why put yourself through it?

A similar case happened in one of my friends place recently. I recommended that he should talk to a few CBs. Some gave standard answers or reply but one with a local office volunteered to visit and understand the issue further before giving an answer. I think you can do the same.

By the way, all the advises given above are sound and worth considering and welcome to the forum.

Hi Royaliso,
We are also in the same situation last year. But we did stop from there, instead by constant focus to the goal plus the top management support and commitment make us heroes as the company was able to be certified to TS16949 last July 2007.
- You need to create a roadmap so that you would be able to track and monitor what must be done to be certified. It work for us, I just hope it will also work for you.
Hope this helps.
Best regards,
Raffy :cool:
My (small) company has been ISO 9001:2000 certified for almost two years. Earlier this year management made a conscious decision to let our certification lapse. Now, after a change in management and a month and a half before our next periodic audit, management has decided that the certification is important again.

Our problem is twofold: first, we have not been properly maintaining our QMS over the last six months, e.g. no internal audits, no formal meetings, etc., and second, our registrar (or at the very least our auditor) has been so difficult to work with that we have investigated switching registrars.

So, here are my questions:

1. Should we go forward with the scheduled periodic audit knowing that we will have major nonconformances and will likely not be able to address them within the thirty days following the audit, and what are the consequences of this?
2. Should we let our certification lapse and start over with a new registrar, and what are the consequences of this?

Thank you for your consideration,
Royalisimo