Adding a New Office Location to an ISO 9001 Certificate (Scope of Registration)

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fixednfinal

A company has an office in location X in a city. It is granted ISO 9001-2008 certificate mentioning address of location X and listing activities as A, B, C, D and E. After 2 years company opens another office (having the same company name) in location Y in the same city but in this office only activities A and C are carried out. The certification is due for a surveillance audit shortly.The question is this:

  1. Does the second office in location Y need to have another certificate or can it be included in the same certificate?
  2. If the answer to 1 above is No, then what needs to be done in order to bring the second office under the purview of certificate issued for the first office?
  3. Is it required to get the address of the second office mentioned in the certificate ?
  4. Is it required to mention on the certificate that office location X carries out activities A, B, C, D and E and office at location Y carries out activities A and C?
  5. If the first office has not carried out activity E during the last several years but has documented procedures for carrying out this activity if need arises. Does it need to get the activity E removed from the certificate on the grounds of "inactivity"?
 

harry

Trusted Information Resource
Welcome to the Cove.

What you described is not clear enough for anybody to give a good advice.

but in this office only activities A and C are carried out

Requirements would vary depending on what A & C are.

Under the present circumstance, the party that can give you the best advice would be your current CB for they already know your current business and operations. Discuss with them.
 

Paul Simpson

Trusted Information Resource
A company has an office in location X in a city. It is granted ISO 9001-2008 certificate mentioning address of location X and listing activities as A, B, C, D and E. After 2 years company opens another office (having the same company name) in location Y in the same city but in this office only activities A and C are carried out. The certification is due for a surveillance audit shortly.The question is this:

  1. Does the second office in location Y need to have another certificate or can it be included in the same certificate?
  1. It depends on your certification body's (CB) policy but most CBs will allow 2 locations on one certificate.
    [*]If the answer to 1 above is No, then what needs to be done in order to bring the second office under the purview of certificate issued for the first office?
    For it to be included on the same certification it has to be running the same systems.
    [*]Is it required to get the address of the second office mentioned in the certificate ?
    Nt a requirement but the benefit to yo is it avoids a whole bunch of questions from your customers if it is specifically mentioned.
    [*]Is it required to mention on the certificate that office location X carries out activities A, B, C, D and E and office at location Y carries out activities A and C?
    Not necessarily. The idea of a single certification is that the customer comes to you and where the work is carried out is immaterial.
    [*]If the first office has not carried out activity E during the last several years but has documented procedures for carrying out this activity if need arises. Does it need to get the activity E removed from the certificate on the grounds of "inactivity"?
This is the most difficult of your questions. A lot depends on how difficult the capability to carry out activity 'E' is and how different from A - D it is. I presume there are some marketing advantages in retaining the certification and, in principle, there is nothing to stop you from retaining 'E' so long as the CB can periodically check that the capability remains to carry out the work. People and knowledge being more important than documented procedures.:)
 

AndyN

Moved On
Have you also considered talking to your CB about this? You do have a point of contact, a Customer Service representative, don't you?

They are, after all, supposed to be providing you with a service, of which answers to these questions are a part...:notme:
 
J

Jason PCSwitches

I recently had a client that expanded and built a new facility adjacent to the original facility. The new facility housed additional molding & machining operations as well as headquarters for sales. It also had a different address (which is key).

So I contacted the CB, which has been suggested, and informed them that we had a new facility that fell under the scope of our current cert. The audit was a re-certification audit so everything was within the scope of the audit. After completion, we received a separate plaque for the new facility under the same certification. Meaning 1 cert. / 2 facilities = no additional cost (notwithstanding the cost of the plaque). After adding the new location in the OASIS database the CB did their thing and the organization was "good-to-go".

Call the CB they will guide you.
 
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G

Gareth_Mills

I have recently done this exact same thing on my cert renewal. I contacted the CB and informed them of teh second office they asked the exact details of what it did and if it could be audited remotely or if it required a separate day's audit. I said it followed the same QMS procedures and is managed by the main office and this was sufficient. They viewed my audit reports of the second office and issued us with two certificates for the two locations with the same scope.
 
P

prady2581

Hi Gareth,
My case is similar to yours. We have this new site performing same activities as other locations (already certified to ISO9001) and follows the same process, procedures, tools and system. Infact it is more like performing support activities for main sites. Our CB has scheduled for 2 days Audit but it is directly Stage 2 audit.

So my question here what I need to take care before this Stage 2 in terms of any update required in some documentation such as Quality Manual - (eg like adding a location but is it appropriate to add this site before it gets certification). Any other points.

Thanks in Advance.
 

dsanabria

Quite Involved in Discussions
Hi Gareth,
My case is similar to yours. We have this new site performing same activities as other locations (already certified to ISO9001) and follows the same process, procedures, tools and system. Infact it is more like performing support activities for main sites. Our CB has scheduled for 2 days Audit but it is directly Stage 2 audit.

So my question here what I need to take care before this Stage 2 in terms of any update required in some documentation such as Quality Manual - (eg like adding a location but is it appropriate to add this site before it gets certification). Any other points.

Thanks in Advance.

Contact your registrar and let them know exactly what you want to do.

They will schedule a stage 1 (preliminary) audit - usually 1/2 day with the auditor in which they will review and will give you feedback of what is required and what is missing for you to continue to stage 2. Depends what is required, they might need you to complete or fix any areas before they recommend you to go to stage 2.

Yes, that includes adding another site to a single certificate if the scope is the same.
 
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