Certification Assessment OF ISO

Certification Assessment

One or two months after a effective stage 1 audit, the certification body (CB) will return to audit the entire system. They will look for conformity to customer, legal, and executive requirements, as well as, to the requirements of the standard. The audit duration will depend on the size of the organization, the number of sites, and the complexity of the processes included in the system.

For example, a small company with 10 or fewer employees might get an audit of only two days. For an company of 20 employees, the duration would rise to three days. For 30 employees, the audit would be four days; for 50+ employees, the audit might be five days.

If the organization receives no major nonconformities during the stage two audit, the audit team will recommend certification based on your compliance of an acceptable corrective action plan for any stated minor nonconformities.

If one or more major nonconformities are found, the certification body (CB) either conducts a special visit in a month or two to confirm the major issues have been resolved by use of the PDCA method, or they conducts another full certification audit when the organization says the major nonconformities have been corrected.

Stage 2 – the purpose of this visit is to confirm that the quality management system fully conforms to the requirements of ISO 9001:2008 in practice. The auditor will:

• Complete sample audits of the processes and activities defined in the scope of assessment
• Record how the system complies with the standard
• Record how the system complies with the organization’s manual and procedures
• Report any non-conformances or potential for non-conformance
• Produce a surveillance plan and confirm a date for the first surveillance visit

During the Stage 2 audit, several employees will be interviewed. If the auditor identifies any major non-conformance, the organization cannot be certified until corrective action is taken and verified. This means the auditor has to come back out for an onsite verification visit.

If there are no major non-conformances, then the certificate is typically sent out within 30-45 days after the Stage 2 audit.