Audit

Not everyone realizes that Certification, Registration and Accreditation are not same thing!!!

In terms of management systems standards, “certification” refers to the issuing in writing “the certificate” by an independent, qualified external body – such as Alliance Registrar/ARC- that has audited an organization’s management system and verified that it conforms to the requirements specified in the standard.

“Registration” means that the auditing body then records the certification in its client register. This means that organization’s QMS been both certified and registered.

That said, “Certification” seems to be the term most widely used worldwide, although registration (from which “registrar” as an alternative to registration/certification body) is often preferred in North America, and the two are also used interchangeably.

However, “accreditation” as an interchangeable alternative for certification or registration is not correct, as there is a significant difference. Accreditation refers to the formal recognition by a specialized body (group of qualified professional team) – an accreditation body – that a certification organization such as Alliance Registrar is competent to carry out certification in specified business sectors and is accredited by a number of local and international independent body.

Simply it means that accreditation is like certification of the certification body. Certificates issued by accredited certification bodies – and known as “accredited certificates”.

We often wonder why do some certified bodies desire to make it harder than it should be. At Alliance, we have a different approach and suggested the following solution:

STEP ONE: You will receive an easy to follow forms, what to expect from our practical certification process and terms & conditions.

STEP TWO: Review your documentations, depending on the standard (s) selected . Also if requested, conduct an on-site readiness review.

STEP THREE: Perform registration or conformance as per signed application and agreement. This process usually consist of speaking to applicable people working in the organization, observing activities/tasks and reviewing documents and records.

STEP FOUR: Depending on the findings of your registration audit, you will have time to take corrective action to resolve the issues. No matter what the issues might be, our team will work closely and collaboratively with you throughout this process until it is satisfactory.

STEP FIVE: After approval of your audit report and related records by our certification committee, you shall receive your registration and framed certificate.

Readiness Review/Document Review

This activity is very important before audit conducting, Alliance reviews the management system documents in conjunction with International Standards and prepares the formal report for clients.

Pre-assessment

When your system is fully implemented you may want to have pre-assessment within your company, Alliance comes in and evaluate your entire quality system to see that everything is in reasonable shape for your registration audit.

Registration (Stage 1 and 2)

Once your management system has been implemented (including internal audits) for three to six months, you will be ready for your Registration Audit. Alliance Registrar that you have chosen will conduct a thorough audit of your management system and decide whether it is ready for Registration.

Surveillance

Once you have achieved your ISO registration, Alliance will conduct periodic surveillance audits to see whether your system is still meeting the ISO standard. This is required in order to maintain your registered status.

Surveillance Audits could be done by two shapes:

Annual (2points in Registration Cycle)

Semi Annual(5 Points in Registration Cycle)