Is there a proper protocol to follow for Self Certification?

[QCALPINE]

Re: Self Certification - Is there a proper protocal to follow?

New to ISO process. What is the average costs of ISO9000 certification.

 

[Sidney Vianna]

Re: Self Certification - Is there a proper protocal to follow?

New to ISO process. What is the average costs of ISO9000 certification.

For a company like yours with approximately 40 employees, the initial certification effort investment would be between $5-8k and the annual surveillance audits around $2-4k in auditor fees. Depending on the CB you select, their day rates, etc.
Keep in mind that these are the certification fees. Implementation fees are typically much higher.

 

[gpainter]

Re: Self Certification - Is there a proper protocal to follow?

There is a good article on this by Amy Zuckerman in the July 16,1998 Purchasing magazine entitled Industry Cooperation on Standards and Conformit Assessment. May want to look at the ICSCA, not sure if they have a web site. BIg companies were members of it and supported SDoC

 

[arin_23]

Re: Is there a proper protocal to follow for Self Certification?

Hello everyone,

I am new to the Quality game but through courses and constant reading I am learning very quickly. I do have my frist question for the Forum. My superior had asked me to research the possibilty of becoming Self Certified. I can not seem to find any information on this. In fact, I had never heard of it until now. Is there a proper protocal to follow and if so who issues the certification?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Francis

Dear Francis,

According to my understanding of your posting, bye the term "self certification" your superior meant to say whether the ISO 9001:2000 (I am specifically mentioning about ISO 9k) can be implemented without engaging the services of a consultant !!!! If so then my answer is possible..but you have to ask yourself whether you can devote how much time apart from your daily job schedule !!!!!

In my experience of working as a lead auditor in a leading CB , I have seen some very good self created and self maintained QMS's , although very few.

If you want to follow a strict time schedule you have to prepare a time chart where in you have to assign rigid time frame for the documentation and other relevent issues.

The following may be your course of action point and priority wise:

1. Form a quality steering commitee with atleast one decision makink member from the Top mnagement.
2. Go for ISO awareness / internal auditor / lead assessor training , so that all the commitee members know about the QMS. You have to take the help of a third party in doing this.
3. Define the scope of QMS and Audit
4.Your top management should define the quality policy , mission and vision statement of the QMS/ Organization
5.Identify the the exclusions (if any)
6.Complete the documentation process, documentation includes quality manual, at least 6 mandatory procedures, work instructions, quality plans, document and record formats, the quality manuals and procedures should be in line with the ISO 9K standard requirements.
7.Start collecting data in the designed formats and records
8. Register with the CB, you must ensure that you have implemented the QMS atleast for 3 months before the final third party audit.
9. Go for the first cycle of internal audits and MRM.
10.Go for CAPA based on the internal audit findings.
11.Call the third party CB for pre-asessment audit ( You can skip this step if you are confident on your own system.
12. call the third party for the final certification audit.

This is the total certification process in a nutshell. If you go for a consultant, it will make your life easy as they will do the time framing for all this steps..and help you out in all the difficulties you are facing during following these outline.

But afterall it is your organization which has to take the initiative.

Cheers

Arindam

 

[Libnani]

Re: Self Certification???

Try the following threads:

Certified to ISG 9000 - A 'Self Certification' Scheme

If ANSI can self-declare, why not you?

And also check the bottom part of my post

Dear Sidney

the declaration of conformity concerns only the product but how about the system which is the first concern of FRANSCISJB .

 

[Helmut Jilling]

Re: Is there a proper protocal to follow for Self Certification?

Bear in mind that self-certification bears no basis for a customer to trust in. This forum already has discussed plenty of formally certified companies whose system can't be trusted for much. In that context, a self-proclaimed compliance provides little.

I can self-proclaim that I am a smart and clever fellow, but I doubt prospective customers would place any value on that proclamation.

 

[Libnani]

Re: Is there a proper protocal to follow for Self Certification?

I can self-proclaim that I am a smart and clever fellow, but I doubt prospective customers would place any value on that proclamation.

It's not a simple self-proclaimation , it's a commitment from the company that it respects the requirements of ISO 9001 .

We should trust in such commitments where are based on standards or specification .

such commitment to a standard is like personal commitment to ethics :
we follow the ethic of respecting neigbourhood for example without having the certificate proving it !

 

[Helmut Jilling]

Re: Is there a proper protocal to follow for Self Certification?

It's not a simple self-proclaimation , it's a commitment from the company that it respects the requirements of ISO 9001 .

We should trust in such commitments where are based on standards or specification .

such commitment to a standard is like personal commitment to ethics :
we follow the ethic of respecting neigbourhood for example without having the certificate proving it !

I agree that a personal commitment is good. But, there is still no assurance to a customer whether you are truly committed.

If I SAY I am truly committed to being a smart and clever fellow, that does not make it more reliable. Such a commitment is only useful inside the organization. There can be significant benefit if you truly are committed to the principles. But, to customers, they would still have to test whether you stand behind it. Frankly, they even need to test whether certified companies are indeed committed.

 

[Ted Schmitt]

Re: Is there a proper protocal to follow for Self Certification?

Just a thought.....

What if the Organization publishes on it´s website that it is "compliant" to a standard... states it´s Policy and Objectives.... to "prove" it´s compliance, the organization could publish the results of it´s KPI´s with graphs or just stating the results of them... this could help demonstrate to it´s customers that the organization is attending the standard in question...

 

[Helmut Jilling]

Re: Is there a proper protocal to follow for Self Certification?

Just a thought.....

What if the Organization publishes on it´s website that it is "compliant" to a standard... states it´s Policy and Objectives.... to "prove" it´s compliance, the organization could publish the results of it´s KPI´s with graphs or just stating the results of them... this could help demonstrate to it´s customers that the organization is attending the standard in question...

Sure. The premise of my reply was that self-certifying is better than no commitment at all. I am committed to certain things in my life - integrity, continual learning and improvement, customer benefit, honesty, christian faith. I am committed to these and they definitely influence the behaviors inside my company. But, externally, a customer would only have faith in my commitments when they see evidence.

A 3rd party certification was intended to show evidence. Unfortunately, as we have discussed, even that is not always worth the paper it is printed on, but it is a start. A self-proclamation of compliance may not carry much weight.

Perhaps, making a self-proclamation on a website would be good. Perhaps, providing some direct evidence may create more confidence. PPM's, Delivery, "Zero Customer complaints" if you can honestly state that. After all, that is the basis for the J.D. Power rankings of quality.