Management review in conformity assessment standards - Certification Bodies

Ivan P.

Registered
ISO standards that define requirements for certain types of conformity assessment bodies, i.e ISO 17020, ISO 17021-1 and ISO 17065 generally state that "reviews shall be conducted at least once a year".

Some people consider that this "once a year" frequency requirement means once in a calendar year, especially those people involved in the area of management system certification bodies. On the other hand, others interpret this requirement as it is not allowed to pass more than 12 months between two management reviews, not even a single day, since in ISO 17020 and ISO 17065 there is also another sentence "Alternatively, a complete review broken up into segments shall be completed within a 12-month time frame".

Is there any (official) interpretation of the meaning of the phrase "once a year"?

Thanks in advance for any help!
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Who are you talking about when it comes to management review, a certificated organization or a certification body?
 

Ivan P.

Registered
Who are you talking about when it comes to management review, a certificated organization or a certification body?
I am talking about management review in an accredited conformity assessment body, i.e. inspection body, certification body for management systems and certification body for certification of products, services and processes.
 
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Randy

Super Moderator
Most likely open to interpretation by each of the Accreditation Bodies involved, either per annum or 12 months
 

Sidney Vianna

Post Responsibly
Leader
Admin
Is there any (official) interpretation of the meaning of the phrase "once a year"?

Thanks in advance for any help!
Welcome to The Cove. I have not seen any "official interpretation" on this, but you can peruse the documents in the Accreditation Auditing Practices Group. Accreditation Body personnel visit the Cove all the time, but for the most part, are afraid of engaging in discussions here, prefer to remain as voyeurs.

Good luck.
 

John Broomfield

Leader
Super Moderator
When interviewing top management about their reviews of the performance of their management system I would verify the reasons claimed for the sufficiency of any frequency.

Once a year or every 12 months regardless of what’s going on with the system or its stakeholders would probably amount to a nonconformity.
 

Ivan P.

Registered
First, thanks to everyone for quick replies!

John, I agree completely, if I am an AB Assessor, I would also expect some rationale for the established frequency for management review. But this risk-based thinking approach, like in in ISO 17025 started explicitly from ISO 9001:2015, and ISO 17020 and ISO 17065 are older, thus more strict regarding time frames for certain activities. And AB assessors sometimes act more like compliance auditors and not conformity assessors...

My accreditation body (and I don't have a possibility to choose one, since I am in Europe), does not have a strict written policy regarding this issue, as far as I am aware, but it seems that majority of auditors tend to interpret this requirement as "once in twelve months" and sometimes CABs have problems because of that.

Sidney, thank you very much for reminding me about AAPG! But, as you said, there is no (un)official interpretation regarding this topic. Maybe initiating a formal request for interpretation through the CASCO mirror committee in our national standardization body would be a proper way, but it would last for long...

Anyway, thank you all once again.
 
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