posted 21 November 1999 06:45 AM               

From: Dennis Arter

This information was recently distributed by my friends at The Informed Outlook at WWW.INFORMINTL.COM:

ISO and IAF Cooperate to Ease ISO 9000 Transition

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and the IAF (International Accreditation Forum) have launched a cooperative program aimed at ensuring a smooth transition for business and industry to the Year 2000 versions of the ISO 9000 standards. At a joint meeting in Vienna representatives of ISO/TC 176, the ISO technical committee responsible for ISO 9000; ISO/CASCO, the ISO committee on conformity assessment; and the IAF, which is an association of national accreditation bodies from more than 30 countries, economic areas, or regions, the following agreements were reached:

1. Accredited certificates to the new ISO 9001 shall not be granted until the publication of ISO 9001:2000 as an International Standard (ISO 9001:2000 will replace the 1994 editions of ISO 9001, 9002 and 9003. A Draft International Standard (DIS) is due to be released in late November early December 1999. Current plans are to circulate a Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) in the third quarter of 2000 and to publish the new ISO 9001 as an International Standard in the fourth quarter of 2000).

2. Certification/registration body assessments to the latest draft of the new standard may begin prior to publication of the ISO 9001:2000 International Standard.

3. Certificates issued to the 1994 editions of ISO 9001, ISO 9002 or ISO 9003 shall have a maximum validity of three years from the date of publication of ISO 9001:2000.

4. ISO 9001:2000 will require auditors and other relevant certification/registration body personnel to demonstrate new competencies.

5. Certification/registration bodies will need to take particular care in defining the scope of certificates issued to ISO 9001:2000, and the permissible exclusions to the requirements of that standard.

The full communiquŽ explaining this agreement can accessed on the web sites of ISO www.iso.ch and the IAF www.iaf.nu

Dennis R. Arter

posted 06 February 2000 11:26 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by dewie:
Is it true that we can select the registration to ISO9000:1994 6 months after ISO9000:2000?

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posted 07 February 2000 06:21 PM               

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) has issued new, improved (sic) advice to ISO 9000 users on how to make a smooth transition to the revised versions of its world-famous quality management standards, due for publication in the fourth quarter of 2000.

"Transition Planning Guidance", updated to reflect the latest Draft International Standard (DIS) version of ISO 9001:2000, and updated answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQâs) on the revisions, are available as hard copies from ISO national member institutes, or accessible electronically from the Web sites of ISO (www.iso.ch) and subcommittee (SC) 2 of the ISO technical committee, ISO/TC 176, which is responsible for the ISO 9000 standards (www.bsi.org.uk/iso-tc176-sc2).

"With millions of ISO 9000 users worldwide, it is imperative that the revised standards be developed with maximum transparency and that the introduction of these standards be as seamless as possible," ISO states in its introduction to its latest information package on the revisions.

Therefore, throughout the development of the revised ISO 9000 standards, ISO has striven to involve user groups by canvassing their expectations and requirements, releasing early draft documents for comment ö as well as for actual trial implementation by selected organizations ö and taking account of the feedback to improve subsequent drafts.

The latest Transition Planning Guidance benefits from the collaboration between ISO, representatives of the certification bodies that issue ISO 9000 certificates and, notably, the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) which represents the majority of the worldâs national accreditation bodies that approve certification bodies as competent to operate. These major stakeholder groups have already agreed to a common policy on such issues as the validity of ISO 9000 certificates during the transition, and the competence of auditors to carry out their work to the new ISO 9000 requirements.

The guidance document includes the full text of the ISO/IAF policy, as well as specific advice for the following stakeholder groups: current, intermediate and new ISO 9000 user organizations; industry sector schemes and quality awards; national standards bodies; accreditation bodies; certification (also known as "registration") bodies; training bodies and consultants. Other special features of the document include correlation and correspondence tables of ISO/DIS 9001:2000 with the current version of ISO 9001, and a summary of key enhancements.

In line with ISOâs wish to accompany the introduction of the revised ISO 9000 standards with the best possible service to users, the organization is encouraging widespread dissemination of the Transition Planning Guidance and FAQâs. To this end, ISO Central Secretariat and ISO/TC 176/SC 2 have agreed that ISO member bodies and other organizations may use these documents, on the following conditions:

a)ÊÊ Their origin as ISO documents is clearly identified, acknowledged and promoted.

b)ÊÊ That if they are to be reproduced for re-sale, then this will require a formal written copyright agreement to be agreed with ISO, and may involve royalty payments (contact: Jacques-Olivier Chabot, Director of General Services and Marketing, ISO Central Secretariat. E-mail [email protected]).

c)ÊÊ If not for re-sale, then there will be no restriction on their translation and onward promotion (including by Web site), or distribution.

[This message has been edited by Marc Smith (edited 07 February 2000).]