Audited against ISO 9002/3/1:1994 until December 2003?

[Sang]

i was wondering if you can get your company audited against ISO 9002/3/1:1994 uptill december 2003? can you apply for ISO 9001:1994 in november 2003 and obtain certification fr a month? purely academic question.
or does it depend on your registrar?
thanks in advance

 

[Jim Biz]

I believe it "would be possible" to do that but probably not the best route to go.

IMHO The closer to December 2003 one gets the less sense it makes - one extra (additional) audit day is the normal requirement to actually do the transition. Probably registrar bodies would caution you against it.

Alot of it may depend on whic one you choose - but I know we had questionaire sent to us - a sheet for "declaring when" we will transition prior to December 2003. Seems to be the "common approach" anyway.

Regards
Jim

[This message has been edited by Jim Biz (edited 02 March 2001).]

 

[Aaron Lupo]

Sang, if you are not ISO 900X:1994 Certified now you can still certify to 900X:1994 for up to 6 months after the relase of 9K2K which was 12/15/00. After that if you are not ISO registered you will not be able to be certified to 900X:1994, you will only be able to certify to 9K2K. However if you are currently ISO 900X:1994 Registered you have up to 3(12/15/03) years to comply with 9K2K, this is also Registrar dependent so are only giving their customers 2 years to comply. So to answer your question no you can not apply for ISO 900X:1994 Certification in november of 2003.

Let me know if this has helped.

 

[juliedrys]

Actually I don't think that's true. What one registrar has told me (UL) is that they will continue to issue new certficates to the 1994 standard until June 2003. They won't of course recommend it after the end of this year, but they won't stop you.

What are other people hearing from registrars?

Julie

 

[Greg Mack]

Question: Why would you bother with the '94 version now anyway?

If you are starting from scratch now, best to go with the 2000 version.

 

[Sang]

Thanks all. Well, I'm not working for a company- merely doing a study on 9001- 1994 and 2000 and got wondering about what is possible.
Your responses really helped. I can see that it really depends on your Registrar. I agree that it doesn't make sense to try and get 1994 certification at this stage if not registered already.

 

[Aaron Lupo]

Originally posted by juliedrys:
Actually I don't think that's true. What one registrar has told me (UL) is that they will continue to issue new certficates to the 1994 standard until June 2003. They won't of course recommend it after the end of this year, but they won't stop you.

What are other people hearing from registrars?

Julie

Julie if they (UL) are telling you they are issuing new Certs. for 1994 after 05/12/01 they are wrong. The rule is (if you are not already certified)that you can Register for 900X:1994 for upto 6 months after 9K2K is released (12/15/00). That is not Registrar dependent that is the rule that all Registraras have to follow, if they are telling you that they will be able to Register you to 900X:1994 they are wrong, I have a hard time believing even UL would give out misinformation like that.

Maybe you should ask them again.

 

[juliedrys]

According to the RAB website, "Registrars may audit organizations against and issue accredited registrations against the 1994 standards for up to three years after the date of publication of ISO 9001:2000. Both new registrations and continuations of current registrations based on the 1994 standards expire three years after the date of publication of ISO 9001:2000." This is directly from the a communiqué issued by ISO/IAF etc. stating that "accredited certification to the 1994 editions should remain possible for up to 3 years after the publication of the revised standards."

I don't see this 6 month rule anywhere. Where is this coming from?

Of course this is academic, as was stated by Greg Mack earlier, because it doesn't make any sense to seek new regsitration to a standard that has been replaced by a new revision. All of my new clients are implementing the new standard. I've only heard one argument against it, which was that they didn't want to be guinea pigs while the registars/auditors sorted out the various interpretations.

Julie

 

[Aaron Lupo]

Don't you hate having to eat crow. I do and thats what I must do, last I knew they were only allowing 1994 Certs to be issued for 6 months after 9K2K was released. Well now I know that has changed, sorry Julie!!

Yes I agree that people should upgrade as soon as possible, however, thats not always easy when you have Executives that don't really care.
I think it is stupid of ISO to have 1994 and 2000 out there at the same time. I think it lends itself to too much confusion. Well I guess this opens a new topic, what does everyone else think about 1994 and 2000 being out there at the same time?

Once again Julie I apologize.

 

[juliedrys]

Hey ISO GUY,

No big deal, I just want to make sure I also have the correct information. The other day I was in an audit and the auditor told my client that the standard he was registered to (9002) would no longer exist in 6 months, so I checked this out.

As a course provider (of RAB-Accredited Lead Auditor Training), this issue of having 2 concurrent standards definitely concerns me. RAB is saying we have to convert our course by this April or May to teach the new standard, but if registrations to 1994 will continue, we expect there to be demand for both courses. They haven't yet figured out how to address this.