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Welcome to the Cove H_YWF!
The first thing to say is that all of these companies will be perceived differently in different parts of the world. My experiences in the UK may not reflect fairly on these companies' performance in your area, or in the world in general. I would pay more attention to any responses you receive from China and the Far East, as this may be more useful to you.
My opinion is based mainly on my previous experiences in Supplier Development for a major steelmaker. I worked with around 400 critical suppliers, 99% of which were ISO9000 approved (or equivalent). The list below is based on their experiences as the client, along with my experiences as the end customer.
For information, my previous company was certified to ISO9000, QS9000 then TS16949 by LRQA; my current company has just been certified to TS16949 by BSI.
1 SGS
I've known one or two companies that had bad experiences with SGS, but they still seem to be far better than the others. They were also the most willing to listen to our comments and work with us to improve the supply chain.
2 BSI
Basically a solid company, with the best infrastructure. However, I've had problems with their administration and many companies I have worked with feel they get poor value for money out of BSI.
3 Lloyds Register Quality Assurance (LRQA)
Probably the best standard of auditors I've encountered, based on client satisfaction and quality of audit reports, but very reluctant to listen to complaints.
4 TUV
Probably the most improved CB from this list, but a number of our suppliers felt they offered poor service and went elsewhere.
5 DNV
Several of our suppliers abandoned DNV due to poor service. I also met with DNV in Norway to discuss a major issue regarding one of our suppliers (who had an ISO9001 certificate despite major system flaws), and they took a very aggressive and unco-operative stance. HOWEVER, based on my overall experiences I still think they warrant their place on the top 5 list. Given that there are over 100 accredited CBs in the UK, I still view them as a decent company.
Moody (Not Ranked)
Insufficient exposure to comment
