[From www.oxebridge.com, with permission.]
Requirements for Registrars to Adopt ISO 9001 Proceed, Over
Objections
September 28, 2005
Winter Haven FL --- The latest draft version of ISO 17021 will
include a requirement that accredited registrars must comply with ISO
9001 themselves, Oxebridge has learned. ISO 17021 will replace ISO/IEC
Guide 62 as the rules which registrars must comply with in order to
maintain accreditation.
ANSI, presumably under pressure from American registrars,
originally objected to an earlier draft of ISO 17021 which mandated
that they themselves must comply with the quality management system requirements of ISO 9001. In order to make its objection, ANSI argued
-- unsuccessfully -- that ISO 17021 was a "product standard" and should therefore not include a reference to ISO 9001. ISO has mandated that no product standard should require ISO 9001 as part of product
certification, but that ISO 9001 may only be used for management system standards. ISO regularly publishes international product standards on
such as traffic signs, electrical components and other physical
objects.
The ANSI objection stalled the progress of ISO 17021, and forced a
second round of draft voting, which is underway now.
The international community rejected ANSI's claim, agreeing that
ISO 17021 is a management system standard of its own right, and not a
product standard. The second draft version of the standard maintains
the requirements of ISO 9001, including the requirements within the
body of the text of the document, instead of as a "normative
reference." This move appears to have not only strengthened ISO's
intent that registrars will comply with ISO 9001, but also defeats
technical arguments against referring to ISO 9001 in the standard.
ISO 17021 accredited registrars will not be certified to ISO 9001,
since that would require competitors to audit each other. Because the requirement of ISO 9001 are included within ISO 17021, accreditation to
the latter is all that will be required.
In related news, Oxebridge has obtained a document allegedly from
the International Independent Organization for Certification (IIOC), a registrar trade organization, which is seeking to scuttle development
of ISO 17021 entirely. The document, which has yet to be independently verified, rejects the standard's language which prohibits registrars
from consulting, and rejects the notion of minimum audit days. At least
one international registrar appears to be supporting the initiative,
which would effectively dismantle the quality profession's rules
governing conflicts of interest.
Oxebridge will report on this further as details are verified.
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