Certification

What is the certification?

The certification is a process by which an organization is assessed in accordance with the requirements of a certain standard (reference standard). The final result (positive) of the certification is to grant a certificate of conformity with the requirements of the standard (reference standard) against which the organization wishes to be certified.

The certification includes the following stages (for more details see the Regulations for Certification):

• Review of the client’s documentation (Is it in accordance with the standard? Is it finalised?)
• Assessment at the client’s office (Are the procedures correctly implemented? Are the standard requirements complied with?) The audit findings are included in an Audit Report.
• Assessment of the client’s file carried out by the Certification Operative Committee of the Certification Body with a view to grant the certification.
• Granting the certification

What is a management system?

A management system represents an assembly of correlated or interacting elements by which the company’s policy and objectives are established. There may be different management systems: quality (QMS), environmental (EMS), food safety (HACCP), information security (ISMS), occupational health and safety (OHSAS), etc., as well as combinations of these systems (integrated systems).

What is a certification body (CB)?

A certification body is a legal entity (company), preferably with private capital (in order to ensure the independence of the certification decisions towards the client) and it is capable of assessment if the organization complies with the criteria of a certain standard (reference standard), based on which the organization wishes to obtain the certification. The certification body must have specialised and trained personnel so that it can assess the conformity with the reference standard, which has been chosen. The certification body must be accredited.

Which are the reference standards against which a management system can be certified?

The cross reference table between the type of management system and the relevant standard is available here (click for download). SIMTEX-OC is able to perform certifications for all the scopes mentioned below. The table also includes the training courses offered by our certification body.

Who accredits the certification bodies?

Every certification body must be accredited by an accreditation agency/body. This is the only authority capable of assessing the competence of a certification body to perform assessments (certifications) of the organisations’ management systems belonging to different activity domains.

What is the difference between a certification body with a international accreditation and one with a national accreditation?

It is absolutely necessary that a certification body be accredited by a recognised accreditation agency with a good reputation – if not, the issued certificate may not have an important value to the beneficiary and the investment is not justified. The accreditation bodies should be signatories to the international agreement MLA. The certificates issued by the certification bodies accredited by an accreditation body signatory to the MLA agreement, as it is the case of SIMTEX-OC, have both international and national recognition. When certification bodies are accredited by an accreditation body, which is not a signatory of the MLA agreement, the certificates only have national recognition.

How do I choose a certification body? Can any certification body grant a certificate to a company that requires a certification?

Any certification body may issue a Certificate but only those that are issued by the accredited bodies are recognised, therefore valid. When opting for a certification body, one must request the body to provide evidence for its accreditation granted by a recognised accreditation body. In addition to this information, the chosen certification body must provide evidence that it is accredited for the domains requested by the client in order that valid certificates can be issued.

What is the validity of the certificate?

The certificate has a 3-year validity period. On request of the certified organization, along with the third surveillance audit, the certification body may perform the recertification as well. Thus, the organization can extend the validly period of its certificate for a 3-year period, without ceasing the validity period. Throughout the 3-year validity period, the organization may request the extension or reducing of the certification scope.

What is the importance of the surveillance audits?

The certification body performs a surveillance audit on a yearly basis. The objective of the surveillance audits is to verify the extent to which the organization maintains the conformity of its certified management system with the reference standard, during the validity period of the certificate.

Is it possible that a certificate be withdrawn?

YES. In case nonconformities are found during the audit, the auditor shall require the certified organization to launch corrective actions, in a given period of time. The auditor will verify whether the found nonconformities have been eliminated and if not, the certificate may be suspended for a limited period of time (e.g. 3 months) and then it is withdrawn.

Who drafts the standards against which a certification audit is carried out?

These standards are drafted by the International Standards Organization (ISO), and then, these are taken over by the national standard organizations, as national standards (in Romania: ASRO – Romanian Standard Association).

Consultancy

What is consultancy?

Consultancy represents a process through which an organization that wishes to be certified is prepared to be assessed by a certification body. It is only the certification body that can perform the certification. Consultancy firms cannot perform certifications. These firms only offer their support for designing and implementing the management system.

How do I choose a good consultant firm?

A good consultant must understand the specifics of the organizations, to identify the necessary number of registrations, by applying certain documents called procedures, work instructions, etc. However, it is not necessary to eliminate the registrations, which are made within the organization, if these are useful for the activities that are carried out, but these only have to be improved as far as their application is concerned.

What exactly does the consultant firm do?

The task of the consultant firm is to shorten the period an organization needs for certification. The consultant firm instructs the organization’s staff and gives its support for the implementation of the respective management system (documents necessary for certification).

Is it possible that the same firm make both the consultancy and the certification?

Definitely NOT! The standard ISO 17021, based on which a certification body for management systems is accredited, specifies that the certification body cannot perform consultancy activities. Thus, impartiality of certification is ensured – an essential requirement for these bodies to operate, along with its independence.