ISO 9001 certification of the new plant before start of production

[somashekar]

[FONT=&quot]We are setting up a new plant in Mexico where we will transfer the production from our main and already certified plant in China. Our customer request at least ISO 9001 certification of the new plant before starting deliveries to them. Can we do the ISO9001 certification before starting the production? I can not find any requirement in ISO document about how long you need to run the production before you can ask for certification, however here in China, there is a 3 months of running production requirement requested by company who is in charge of ISO certification. Does anybody here have any information about such kind of requirement in Mexico? I need some written official document about this requirement which I could refer to for discussion with customer. Thank you very much in advance.[/FONT]

With agreement to all responses above, I would ask you to ask your customer, as to how he could ask such a request. Perhaps you can educate him about the certification process, the stage 1 readiness review and the stage 2 and certification etc...

Our customer request at least ISO 9001 certification of the new plant before starting deliveries to them.

 

[John Broomfield]

[FONT=&quot]We are setting up a new plant in Mexico where we will transfer the production from our main and already certified plant in China. Our customer request at least ISO 9001 certification of the new plant before starting deliveries to them. Can we do the ISO9001 certification before starting the production? I can not find any requirement in ISO document about how long you need to run the production before you can ask for certification, however here in China, there is a 3 months of running production requirement requested by company who is in charge of ISO certification. Does anybody here have any information about such kind of requirement in Mexico? I need some written official document about this requirement which I could refer to for discussion with customer. Thank you very much in advance.[/FONT]

evastok,

3 months sounds reasonable for you to verify the effectiveness of your new plant’s management system in Mexico before you ask your registrar to certify.

Apply to extend the certification of your China plant to your new plant in Mexico.

Take the advice of your registrar on how many internal audit/management review cycles are needed to do this.

Then update your Mexico sales team to secure orders for their new plant.

Meanwhile, keep your customer informed of how they can assist with progress; after all you have a partnership with your customer.

Good luck,

John

 

[ScottK]

I think that you need to:
A) have a conversation with your registration and
B) have further conversation with your customer

Having been through a site move with a company under ISO9001 and ISO13485 our customers were far more interested that the processes at the new site were qualified or validated and understood that ISO reg of the new site would follow.

So see what your registrar says, set a timeline for registration of the new site with them, and assure the customer that processes will be qualified before shipping parts from the new site.

 

[AndyN]

Trust me - I worked for registrars (and others will also tell you) there's NO point in talking to any Registrar. You don't have a Quality System if you aren't in production... Therefore you have nothing to implement and you cannot even begin to talk to the things needed to show a Registrar.

 

[Sidney Vianna]

I had a friend who used to work in Supplier Quality for Embraer. He told me of a case of a supplier in China that wanted to start doing business with Embraer and started the application process. One of the first things submitted in the package was their ISO 9001 certificate. My friend asked for pictures of the plant. Supplier sent pictures of an empty lot, explaining that’s where the plant would be built if they got contracts from Embraer.

With the non accredited and pseudo accredited “purveyors of certification” anything is possible.

 

[Golfman25]

It's not so much getting a "non-existent" plant certified as it is finding out how quickly you can get the new plant certified. If you can start certification after 3 or 6 months production it would be good to know.

 

[AndyN]

[FONT=&quot]We are setting up a new plant in Mexico where we will transfer the production from our main and already certified plant in China. Our customer request at least ISO 9001 certification of the new plant before starting deliveries to them. Can we do the ISO9001 certification before starting the production? I can not find any requirement in ISO document about how long you need to run the production before you can ask for certification, however here in China, there is a 3 months of running production requirement requested by company who is in charge of ISO certification. Does anybody here have any information about such kind of requirement in Mexico? I need some written official document about this requirement which I could refer to for discussion with customer. Thank you very much in advance.[/FONT]

It's not in ISO 9001. ISO 9001 isn't about certification and there are no "rules" about how much you have to do, in terms of time frames. A CB might tell you "3 months" but that's a complete guess on their part. If the time it takes you to complete your (manufacturing) processes, deliver products and get customer feedback etc, takes 9 months, then you'll have to wait at least 9 months before you can be certified. Which function at your customer is asking for certification? Purchasing? Quality?

If their Quality people know anything about certification, they should understand this and they could straighten out the Purchasing people.

If you know which CB you are going to use they may issue a "letter of intent" once you have signed a registration agreement which may be sufficient.

 

[ScottK]

Trust me - I worked for registrars (and others will also tell you) there's NO point in talking to any Registrar. You don't have a Quality System if you aren't in production... Therefore you have nothing to implement and you cannot even begin to talk to the things needed to show a Registrar.

I would recommend talking to the registrar for getting a timeline for registration of the new site to communicated to the customers

 

[AndyN]

I would recommend talking to the registrar for getting a timeline for registration of the new site to communicated to the customers

Depending on the choice - and we don't know who this OP is going to use (if they even have a choice), for the most part 90 days is a typical lead time. Even that's up in the air...