Overview of existing
assessment schemes
Rolf Bienert, John Lin
Levels of assessment
1.
2.
3.
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5.
Accreditation of assessment bodies
Accreditation of test facilities
Qualification of individuals
Certification of systems
Certification of products
Accreditation of assessment bodies
• E.g. ISO Guide 65
– ISO Guide 65 (or EN45011 as it is known in its European
version) is the International Standards Organization guideline
'General requirements for bodies operating product certification
systems'. It is a general guide for certification and has been
referenced or used as a base for most organic norms and
regulations (Europe, Canada, Japan etc)
– ISO Guide 65 accreditation must be performed against a
reference standard or standards. The reference standard may be
the production and processing standards of a national regulation
(often a national standard eg. European Regulation (EC)
834/2007) but may also be your own or another organization's
private standard. IOAS accepts applications which reference to
any organic standard or related area.
Accreditation of test facilities
•
E.g. ISO 17025
– ISO/IEC 17025 is the main standard used by testing and calibration laboratories.
There are many commonalities with the ISO 9000 standard, but ISO/IEC 17025
adds in the concept of competence to the equation. And it applies directly to
those organizations that produce testing and calibration results.
– There are two main sections in ISO/IEC 17025 - Management Requirements and
Technical Requirements. Management requirements are primarily related to the
operation and effectiveness of the quality management system within the
laboratory. Technical requirements address the competence of staff, methodology
and test/calibration equipment.
– Laboratories use ISO/IEC 17025 to implement a quality system aimed at
improving their ability to consistently produce valid results. It is also the basis for
accreditation from an Accreditation Body. Since the standard is about
competence, accreditation is simply formal recognition of a demonstration of that
competence.
– A prerequisite for a laboratory to become accredited is to have a documented
quality management system. The usual contents of the quality manual follow the
outline of the ISO/IEC 17025 standard.
Certification of individuals
• E.g. CISA (Certified Information Systems
Auditor) Certification
– There is a multitude of requirements for
auditors out there. Most national and
international accreditation agencies apply
their own requirements.
– Candidates have to show an understanding of
the administrative and technical requirements
– Documentation is key
Certification of systems
• E.g. ISO 9000 series
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Probably the best known accreditation scheme
Small to large companies
Customer service, product development, production
Some requirements include:
• a set of procedures that cover all key processes in the
business;
• monitoring processes to ensure they are effective;
• keeping adequate records;
• checking output for defects, with appropriate and corrective
action where necessary;
• regularly reviewing individual processes and the quality
system itself for effectiveness; and
• facilitating continual improvement
Certification of products
• Follows an industry accepted testing and
certification scheme
• Can be self-testing and self-certification
• Most of the time – testing by third party
(auditor, test facility, test organization,
testing in group) & certification after
review.
Relevant Info
• Example of assessment checklist for certification bodiese.g. what can be used to evaluate industrial certification
organizations- from UKAS
•
http://www.itc.gov.hk/en/quality/hkas/doc/hkcas/HKCAS013-Checklist.pdf
• Test Labs can be assessed to ISO Guide 17025 by A2LA
• Checklist based on IEC/ISO Guide 65 can be modified
by OpenSG with sector specific industry expert
knowledge checks to augment assessment checklist for
certification bodies (certification system conformity
requirements from OpenSG- e.g. CPRM derived)
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