Are we qualified for QS 9000 certification?

[DT]

Hi,

We are a regional office located in Singapore and we are part of a corporate company that designs and manufactures semiconductor equipment (located in US).

Our regional office is currently undergoing changes with objective of obtaining QS 9000 certification.

Unfortunately, according to one auditing/certification body, we are not qualified because of our nature of business. However, an alternative body claimed that we can.

For our regional office, we provide the following services:

1) Installation and qualification of equipment at customer sites.
2) We provide preventive maintenance and service contracts to customers.
3) We sell and deliver spare parts to customers (we have our own warehouse in Singapore).
4) We provide technical training to both customers and internal engineers.
5) We provide technical expertise to our customers.

Can you advise, based on our nature of business in Singapore, are we qualified to go for QS 9000 certification, considering that we do not have design and manufacturing here in Singapore?

Can different auditing/certification bodies have different interpretation of the QS 9000 elements?

Appreciate if you could advise urgently !!

Thanks.
DT

 

[Christian Lupo]

Yes certification bodies can have different interpretations.

I would need more information to be absolutly sure but in general if your office/location performs the activities you mentioned above for an automotive customer your office/location can be QS-9000 certified.

A more likely scenario is that your office would be registered as a "remote site". In this scenario your site would part of a QS-9000 registration.

 

[Marc]

Christian is correct. It used to be that only companies supplying automotive could register. The sad part is the answer Christian gave you for your question
"Can different auditing/certification bodies have different interpretation of the QS 9000 elements?" which is (unfortunately) yes. Can and do. That does not mean they are supposed to be giving conflicting info.

Who are the two registrars which gave you the conflicting information?

 

[DT]

Hi Christian and Marc,

Thanks for the feedback. However, I got some information that RAB does not think we are qualified for QS 9000 because we do not have a design and manufacturing facility here in Singapore.

Can you or anyone please advise on this point?????

Thank you very much.
DT

 

[Marc]

I dunno. One former client had their design office in the US and production facilities in Korea. They registered to QS9000. I have never heard of location of facilities to matter in a registration. I know a distributor in Dayton, Ohio is registered to QS9000 (a distributor doesn't make anything but rather is simply a 'middleman') - they certainly had no design function nor did they do any manufacturing.

After having seen a distributor registered I have a hard time understanding why you would not be elegible. But that's QS9000 and the RAB for you!

 

[Christian Lupo]

DT-

I agree with Marc, it does not make sense that you cannot be registered, perhaps you misunderstood the RAB or they misunderstood your situation.

 

[ALM]

Originally posted by Marc Smith:
I dunno. One former client had their design office in the US and production facilities in Korea. They registered to QS9000. I have never heard of location of facilities to matter in a registration. I know a distributor in Dayton, Ohio is registered to QS9000 (a distributor doesn't make anything but rather is simply a 'middleman') - they certainly had no design function nor did they do any manufacturing.

After having seen a distributor registered I have a hard time understanding why you would not be elegible. But that's QS9000 and the RAB for you!

We are currently "not a design responsible supplier" and just were recommended for certification to QS9000 by BSI.

The only reason that I can think of for "not being eligible" is if you do not supply Automotive Customers or QS9000 registered customers. Even so, if you are set-up to perform said functions of the Standards and can provide objective evidence that you perform them... I see no reason why you cannot be QS9000 registered.

 

[Marc]

Caterpillar requires QS-9000 registration from its suppliers and they aren't automotive. What does that tell us?

 

[Jim Biz]

Marc - Are you sure Cat has made QS registration a requirement? I do know that other AG/Industrial Equpt. related producers have included "portions" of the QS activities that they believe are benificial to them in their supplier manuals. They present them as "supplier expected activities" ISO PLUS some (not all) added activities in QS that they want accomplished from a customer satisfaction standpoint but have yet to go as far as REQUIRING registration to either set of standards. The manuals are pretty clear that suppliers are to follow the activities even if suppliers opt not to be "formally registered".

 

[Marc]

Best I can tell you is a potential British client so stated to me.