Supplier QMS certificate accredidation - Certificate has no logo

[larry hopperrath]

We are ISO/TS registered. We have a new steel supplier who's price we cannot beat. They are certified to ISO 9001:2000, but their certificate does not have an accredidation logo on it. Is there a place i can go to see if they are accredidted?

[Coury Ferguson]

Originally Posted by larry hopperrath

We are ISO/TS registered. We have a new steel supplier who's price we cannot beat. They are certified to ISO 9001:2000, but their certificate does not have an accredidation logo on it. Is there a place i can go to see if they are accredidted?

Here is one place to go: http://www.anab.org/ and search the accredited certification bodies and see if they are listed. There is a possibility that maybe there was a mistake on the Certificate of Registration, so verify the CB before possible action.

By the way I have moved this post, to this forum.

[larry hopperrath]

They are not listed there. I will have a hard time getting management not to buy from them

[Coury Ferguson]

Originally Posted by larry hopperrath

They are not listed there. I will have a hard time getting management not to buy from them

I guess my next question is:

Do you really need a metal supplier to have a Registered System?

[SteelMaiden]

Well, how critical is it that they are registered by an accreditted organization? Is it required by YOUR registration, or only by your own procedures? If it is imperative that your supplier hold an accreditted registration, then your company really does not have much choice, does it? Unless, they do not mind losing their registration, or their customer????

eta: when you say a steel supplier - are you purchasing direct from a mill or are you purchasing through a warehouse? Most mills anymore are ISO registered by an accreditted body.

[AndyN]

IMHO, dealing with a non-accredited supplier is O.K, as long as you management understand the risk. For example, if it's non-accredited, the auditor may not have even turned up on site, let alone been knowledgable of steel quality processes. Furthermore, you will probably have to take on the burden of periodically (or even every time) performing some kind of test on the quality of the steel (physical properties, metallurgy etc) to verify it, because you can't trust the supplier, can you? You may even have to do an audit yourself, and the sanctioned interpreatations now say that audit has to meet ISO 17021 requirements (I think) so, it's got to look like a third party audit, essentially...........

If your management understand the costs of all these apsects, does the price look so good now??

Andy

[tyker]

I think the point of this question is that TS16949 clause 7.4.1.2 requires suppliers to be registered to ISO 9001 by an accredited certification body unless the customer specifies otherwise.

There's another thread somewhere started recently by, I think, Sidney Vianna, which refers to an interpretation allowing second party assessments. Look up the thread rather than relying, somewhat dangerously, on my memory but an audit by you might be an alternative.

Or I might just get some pointed comments about my memory.

[Colpart]

Originally Posted by tyker

Or I might just get some pointed comments about my memory.

Don't worry, you'll soon forget them!!