Our ISO Certification Process

Beginning your journey to certification with AC Quality Assurance

The road to certification of your management system can seem complicated and overwhelming however, at AC Quality Assurance (ACQA) we aim to ensure the process is easy to follow and understand each step of the way.

The long established extensive experience and the qualifications of our team (30 plus years) in undertaking audits across ISO standards in a wide variety of industry sectors assures the client that we have the right credentials to impart knowledge for understanding the application of ISO standards, importantly as is relevant to their business operations, and to provide certification processes that are practicable, relevant to a business’s applications and scope and easily understood.

We aim to ensure that our audit reports are clearly documented, easy to understand, relevant to the business applications and easy to respond to with necessary actions as maybe needed.

What is the process for certification?

Below contains an overview of your management system certification process. Please feel free to contact ACQA for more information.

Pre-certification activities - application phase

This involves an exchange of information between you and ACQA, including completion of your Application for Certification and ACQA Fee Proposal. Once accepted your certification assessment process can begin!

Certification assessment - stage 1

We conduct an initial full system review assessment of your management system documentation against the applicable certification standard(s). This is usually conducted as a desktop audit/ remotely however, it may still require attendance at your premises. A system assessment involves checking that the system documentation is in compliance with the standard requirements. Any gaps will be identified as non-conformances to identify and communicate any additional documented information that needs to be reviewed and/ or obtained and addressed in advance of the System Implementation Assessment (Stage 2).

Certification assessment - stage 2

After addressing any issues raised as part of the stage one assessment we conduct a site implementation assessment to evaluate the actual implementation of your management system, including its effectiveness, in actual practice. Evidence (records of implementation) of conformity to requirements of the applicable audit criteria is required, as set out in an audit plan developed by AC Quality Assurance. This audit involves site assessments. Where certification is sought for multiple sites then audits may be required at all these sites or site sampling may be used.

Initial certification decision

Audit results will be reported and once any major outstanding issues are addressed and we are satisfied that there are no unacceptable risks or issues that remain we can issue the certificate certification for your management system(s).

Maintaining your certification

Your certification will be valid for a three year period from the date of issue. To maintain your certification Surveillance Audits are required to be undertaken annually to monitor management system performance and to maintain confidence that the certified management system continues to fulfil requirements. They are on-site and/ or off site audits that target specific elements of the management system standard and/ or certification criteria and usually do not require a full system audit.

Recertification

Re-certification Audits are required to be undertaken every 3 years after the Initial Certification Audit, or last Re-certification Audit. The re-certification audit forms the end of the 3 yearly certification cycle and the beginning of the new one. They are used to evaluate the continued fulfilment of all applicable requirements and effectiveness of the management system as a whole, taking into account any internal and external changes/ issues and its ongoing relevance and applicability for the scope of certification.

If you're interested in ISO standard(s) certification get in touch with a member of our team and we can start your journey to certification.

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