How to handle certification process - Firm's division recently established abroad

S

stanislavd

Our firm recently has established new production division abroad. The process is software development, so the most activities may be managed in distance. How to handle the certification process for this division? Here are some options:
- certifying of the abroad division as separate firm and choose it as subcontractor (implement ISO 9001 - 7.4 Purchasing requirements);
- including of this division in our main firm organizational scheme and applying of the quality management system, established in the main firm;

If the second choice is preferable, we will need extension of our certificate scope - may be should appoint extra external audit.

Do you have any ideas or experience in this field? Please, post your advices, thank you !
 
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M

Martijn

Our European organization has an umbrella certificate ISO 9001:2000 for our HQ. Each location in Europe (7 countries at the moment) has their own certificate for their location, which falls under the umbrella certificate. This works when each location is a small organizational unit in itself (managers, HRM, admin, etc.).

If your location abroad is supervised from HQ and all quality critical functions are in HQ, i'd say treat them as a supplier (not necessarily certified, some on site audits might also work to ensure quality, it's all about risk control). We do this ourselves, we use other divisions abroad as contract manufacturers and we treat them likewise.

If it's an organization in itself with "quality critical functions" I'd say go for certification abroad and an umbrella certificate.

Regards, Martijn
 
S

stanislavd

Certification umbrella

May you explain further this term - certification umbrella? I mean - how you obtain such certificate - are the international site have been visited by the registrars, etc.

Thank you in advance.
 
RoxaneB

RoxaneB

Change Agent and Data Storyteller
Super Moderator
Our Sales locations are located in two separate sites from where we actually manufacture the product. All Canadian Customers deal with our Canadian Sales office (about 2 hours away) and all American Customers deal with our US-based sales office in Florida.

While it would appear that some Registrars would be willing to accept the output from their process as an input to ours and that this makes them a supplier to us, our own Registrar did not.

As such, the scope of our certificate includes our manufacturing processes here and the sales processes performed at XXX and YYY. This means that they are audited internally once a year and by our Registrar once every three years.
 
M

Martijn

stanislavd said:
May you explain further this term - certification umbrella? I mean - how you obtain such certificate - are the international site have been visited by the registrars, etc.

Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...

Quite literarly, it's a certifcate that says that our European division is certified for an overall European scope (not one location holds all these activities, only the combination of them). And then the certificate refers to our local organizations with their own scope per country. So with umbrella certificate i mean a certificate that covers our european organization (like an umbrella.
 
S

stanislavd

Holding

What about if the firms are connected in holding - I mean, we are certified, but we are branche of whole holding structure. We closly interact with the firm abroud that is also part of this holding but don't have any marketing and sales, HR etc. divisions, only pure production.
 
Coury Ferguson

Coury Ferguson

Moderator here to help
Trusted Information Resource
stanislavd said:
Our firm recently has established new production division abroad. The process is software development, so the most activities may be managed in distance. How to handle the certification process for this division? Here are some options:
- certifying of the abroad division as separate firm and choose it as subcontractor (implement ISO 9001 - 7.4 Purchasing requirements);
- including of this division in our main firm organizational scheme and applying of the quality management system, established in the main firm;

If the second choice is preferable, we will need extension of our certificate scope - may be should appoint extra external audit.

Do you have any ideas or experience in this field? Please, post your advices, thank you !
Click to expand...

Guide 62 describes the requirements of Corporate Certification. You can download this guide at this website: http://www.iaf.nu/

This will help in your quest.


Coury Ferguson
 
M

Martijn

Couldn't find the doc, except "guidance on the guide", which is a bit too much of a read for me :D. Anyways, here's your answer Stanislav:

RCBeyette said:
Our Sales locations are located in two separate sites from where we actually manufacture the product. All Canadian Customers deal with our Canadian Sales office (about 2 hours away) and all American Customers deal with our US-based sales office in Florida.

While it would appear that some Registrars would be willing to accept the output from their process as an input to ours and that this makes them a supplier to us, our own Registrar did not.

As such, the scope of our certificate includes our manufacturing processes here and the sales processes performed at XXX and YYY. This means that they are audited internally once a year and by our Registrar once every three years.
Click to expand...

Try to go for 1 certificate and have the scope say your activities are based on two locations. And why not ask your registrar for advice, see what he thinks, he's the one that has to agree to the solution.
 
Coury Ferguson

Coury Ferguson

Moderator here to help
Trusted Information Resource
Martijn said:
Couldn't find the doc, except "guidance on the guide", which is a bit too much of a read for me :D. Anyways, here's your answer Stanislav:



Try to go for 1 certificate and have the scope say your activities are based on two locations. And why not ask your registrar for advice, see what he thinks, he's the one that has to agree to the solution.
Click to expand...


I have extracted the pages that address Multi-Site from Guide 62 that would apply here. Remember this is only an extraction from Guide 62 and the entire Guide should be reviewed before making any decision.


Coury Ferguson
 

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S

stanislavd

Good source of information

The information in this guide is useful. Thanks! Anyway, I am confused by the following: "but all sites shall have a legal or contractual link with the central office of the organization and be subject to a common quality management system"

What happens if the other firm (part of the holding) has separate quality management system? How the relations between the offices should be arranged. Is it possible to establish one "general" holding related QMS that refer to the specific QMS of each firm/division?
 
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