Expanding a Company's Scope of Registration

[Fire Girl]

Expanding your scope

Hello!

The company I work for has decided to expand the business and add another division. They are undecided as of yet if it will be an entirely separate company or a division of the one we already have. I know that I will need to talk to my registrar about this.

However, I was curious if anyone had been thru a similar situation. I have not. I'm not sure how big of a deal it's going to be. I guess I can just add work instructions for the new operation and make sure the internal audits, man review etc cover this area?

Thanks!

Fire Girl

 

[RoxaneB]

Hello!

The company I work for has decided to expand the business and add another division. They are undecided as of yet if it will be an entirely separate company or a division of the one we already have. I know that I will need to talk to my registrar about this.

However, I was curious if anyone had been thru a similar situation. I have not. I'm not sure how big of a deal it's going to be. I guess I can just add work instructions for the new operation and make sure the internal audits, man review etc cover this area?

Thanks!

Fire Girl

The scope of your ISO certificate is for your company at your address and for your current process(es), right? Who says that this newest addition to your family will pursue registration?

Last year, we were just 2 facilities in Canada with two different registrars and owned by a Brazillian company. Now we're 11 facilities, 3 companies merged into one...and our Sales depts are located 150 km to the East and all the way down in Florida for the other.

Just the two locations continue to be ISO with the other locations contemplating it.

Our Registration applies only to our location and strictly the Sales Department located at our Canadian and US Corporate offices (not I.S., not Credit, not HR...you get the idea...just their Sales Dept's).

Sure, I'd call up your Registrar to keep 'em in loop, but unless they will be joining you in your Registration, I wouldn't worry.

Of course, someone will tell me if I completely missed the boat on this one.

 

[Fire Girl]

I want it certified!

Hey RC!

Thanks for the input! A fellow Canadian.... right on, eh?

Anyway, I fully intend to have the new division (or whatever the powers that be decide to call it) certified. We will be using this service for ourselves initially but then we want to bring in outside work. We will definitely want to be certified for that. I just wasn't sure what the best plan for that was.

Thank you

Fire Girl

 

[RosieA]

Hiya Firegirl,

I've been through this, and it really isn't bad. (sometimes I think I've been through every possible ISO curve ball there is

I had to update the scope of my certificate, add visits to the new location to my ISO audit plan, and link myself into the quality system of the new division. It helped that they were already ISO certified, so I wasn't starting from scratch.

I had access to their work instructions, all their quality records, which were on the corporate network, and was able to pull out warranty data and on-time delivery stats because they shared our applications software.

I used their already established audit system, and worked out a few kinks, but it was pretty smooth.

Your Registar will be the best resource for how it will work for you.

 

[Claes Gefvenberg]

Hi FG,

Just wondering: When you say add another division, do you mean aquireing an existing company or starting something from scratch?

Next question is whether the addition will be a separate company or not?

/Claes

 

[Fire Girl]

Hi Claes!

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you... I just got back from 2 weeks holidays.

This is something that we will be starting from scratch. I'm not sure exactly how the business is going to be set up from an accounting point of view, but it will be attached to this building. I will have to develop work instructions, etc for it. But I would imagine that all my other core procedures would still apply... I am talking about NCR's, maintenance, management review,etc.

Thanks.

Fire Girl

 

[tomvehoski]

If it is going to be at your existing site, it should be pretty easy to expand your scope. As you said, update your procedures as necessary to reflect the new operations and generate any necessary work instructions. Your registrar should be able to handle it during a normal six month audit. They will probably want to add some audit time if the change is significant.