Hi to all, this is my first post here, I have a question:

I am working with a QS Certified manufacturer in Venezuela, South America, which corporate offices are in the US. We are transitioning to ISO/TS 16949:2002 as a corporate decision.

Some background info:
- Our QS Registrar, a US company, has communicated us that they have quit from working outside the US territories.
- We have contacted a new registrar for ISO/TS
- Our last (annual) surveillance audit was on last November.
- Our QS certificate shows that it is valid until July 2004.
- We have been toll that we will be deslisted with our current registrar on November 2003.
- Our schedule for ISO/TS places our certification audit early on December 2003 (no way to make it sooner)
- We have been told by the new registrar that now recommendation letter is issue when registering to ISO/TS and that the certificate will take 2-3 months to be issued.

My questions are:
What will happen with our certification status while we wait for the new certificate?
Which are our options?

Thanks in advance for any help

Alejandro Irausquín

My questions are:
What will happen with our certification status while we wait for the new certificate?
Which are our options?

The short answer is that you will not be certified from November until you get the new certificate. If being certified is a requirement for you to do business with your customers, that could be a major issue for your company.

It seems like your options are:
1) let your certification expire & deal with the consequences
2) have your new registrar do a QS-9000 surveillance audit before your certificate is delisted and have them issue a new QS-9000 certificate
3) find a way to get your TS certification audit done earlier

BTW, why can't they audit you before November?

AirAusquin states,
"- Our QS certificate shows that it is valid until July 2004.
- We have been toll that we will be deslisted with our current registrar on November 2003."

Your new registrar can pick up the balance of your QS with a desk audit and a modest fee. They may require a pre-assessment audit.

"- Our schedule for ISO/TS places our certification audit early on December 2003 (no way to make it sooner)"

Once your new registrar picks up your QS this will be plenty of time.

"- We have been told by the new registrar that now recommendation letter is issue when registering to ISO/TS and that the certificate will take 2-3 months to be issued."

I can't speak for all registrars, but ours completed the process and we had our certificate within thirty days.

Thanks guys! :)

We discussed this further and came to the conclusion than the safer way to go is doing the QS assesment with the new registrar. It will cost us more but we will stay in the safer side.

Alejandro

If it had been me, I'm sure that's the option I would have gone with too. Good luck!