We have received some QS-9000 certificates from one supplier that has in the expiration date field "continuous". Is this acceptable or are they certified by some kind of untrustable registrar?:(
Plese let me know your experience;)

Beky,

If I remember correctly, there is three year cycle on QS-9000 certification. Without more data I would presume the latter. Who is the registrar? If you not comfortable posting it send me a private e-mail.

I do believe you can get a Continous Cert for QS and it is TS that you have to re-cert. to every 3 years.

I just looked into the internet for this registrar and guess what? I found it, also they have a list of the companies that are under their registration , so I search for different companies and they actually have an expiration date on their certificates ( posted in iternet) so I looked for this supplier of us and it seems like its the only one with continuous certification.
So I went further and wrote them a letter asking why they have different systems...
Still waiting for answer..I hope they have a good one...:rolleyes:

:ko: sorry if I have misspelling but english is my second language;)

Beky,

Outstanding, keep up the good work and good posts!

We are ISO 9002 our registrar has us on a " continuous registration". The Justification: we are audited twice per year rather than yearly. This also saves a liitle bit of money with re-certification. It is my understanding that all registrars can do this.

I wrote to the registrar of the "continuous certifications" to ask why and her's the answer: :rolleyes:

The differences are as follows:

Both types have a three-year period during which certain audits have to be done.

Continuous Registration - During the three-year period following registration, five surveillance audits are conducted. Each surveillance audit will assess a minimum of 25% of the quality management system.

The benefits of continuous registration include:

- The provision of a certificate that does not expire and a full-registration audit is not required.

- More frequent interaction with your audit team, to ensure your management system is working efficiently for you and that continyuous improvement is realized.

Annual Surveillance Audits Certificate is valid for three years and has an expiry date

During the three-year registration period, two annual surveillance audits are conducted.

- Each surveillance audit will assess a minimum of 50% of your quality management system.

- A re-registration audit is condufted following the three-year cycle.

The choice is entirely up to the organization. That is why some of our registered customers show an expiry date, others show continuous. What do you think guys? :biglaugh:

Beky, that is fine. Everything is on the up and up. Continuous Certificates are allowed.

beky,

Is that 25% on top of:

Management Review
APQP
Corrective Action
Internal Audit

and the other I forget!!!!

Al...

Our QS-9000 is set up on a continuous schedule which follows the twice a year surveillance audit schedule outlined by Becky. Every 3 years, our certification "rolls over" without a "re-registration audit.

The difference here seems to be that our certificate lists the orriginal approval date, the current certificate date AND - the Certificate expiration date (3 years from the current certificate date).

We have to print new copies of our certificate and distribute to our customer base every time the certificate is renewed. There is also an administrative charge from the registrar for the new certificates (we have 10 plants).

I will be very interested to hear from others on how their certificate renewals are handeled. BTW - none of our suppliers have sent in an open ended certificate. If they did I would question it too.

Al - Management Review - Review of Changes to the Quality System - Continuous Improvement - Corrective Actions - Internal Audits

And yes, for us, it is 25% on top of these with the thinking that the mandatory reviews are not full element audits and will require additional review.

Dave

We are ISO 9002. As I am looking at our Certificate Of Registration, It has the following info at the bottom:
Cert. number
Cert. issue date
Initial registration date*
* says company is audited for compliance at regular intervals

It has no expiration date.