Focus on

Management System Certification: What’s the Difference between “Adding Value” and “Costing Money”?

Malcolm Ting, SGS SSC Global Key Account Manager writes on the changing face of certification and outlines the benefits of holding a certificate from an accredited registrar.

For whatever reason, certification to ISO 9001:2000 and other standards is now a commodity service.  The large number of accredited certification bodies in North America means there are a lot of choices and simple supply and demand means that in many cases, the complexity of the business, the number of people on site and number of locations is used as the basis of quoting jobs.

Certification bodies compete on price – it’s a quality indicator that goes hand in hand with their service.  But while service level, responsiveness, and just plain fit with an organization are also important indicators, audit-days at whatever day rate is often the indicator used by the client to determine the value of the certification body.

At the time I am writing this, Quality Digest’s “Quality Insider” e-zine has a question on its front page: “If your company is registered to a quality standard, does top management set an expectation of adherence to the standard for the purposes of improving quality, or just to get a good audit report from your registrar?”  Not surprisingly, the results to date for this survey are pretty even; 48.5 percent people only want the good report and 45 percent want to improve quality.  Five and a half percent of respondents were not registered to any standard.  It seems that when it comes to certifying their management systems, people are torn between just getting the getting the piece of paper on the wall, and truly using their system to improve.  It’s been like this through the 1987, 1994 and 2000 versions of the standard and will probably persist through the life of the 2009 version.

So why get certified at all?  And what’s the difference if I get certified (or renew) with an accredited or non-accredited certification body?  Is price alone my main quality indicator?

The number of unaccredited certification bodies is growing worldwide, and some camps see this as a threat to the credibility of an organization being certified.  Some of these unaccredited bodies claim to offer a “value-added” service by charging fewer days than their accredited counterparts (lower price), and also claim that their non-accredited status allows them to offer advice and share ideas that organizations can use to improve their processes (user friendliness).  Most of these bodies produce a registration certificate that states conformance to an ISO standard, and while this statement is probably true, people seeking registration from an unaccredited certification body should be careful and look beyond the price component of registration as one of their quality indicators:

1. Is my ISO certificate a contractual requirement on me by my customers?  Will holding a certificate from an unaccredited registrar bar me from quoting on certain types of work?  If ISO registration is a contractual requirement, careful determination should be made whether a certificate issued by an unaccredited certification body is acceptable.  
2. Do I need international access to markets?  Do my customers need proof of my certificate as evidence that I can effectively compete with other players in my field of expertise?  If my customers require an internationally recognized certificate, will a certificate from an unaccredited certification body meet this requirement?  Without accreditation oversight of the certification body, will my certificate have lesser credibility than other accredited certificates?
3. What do my customers want?  Certification gives me a “level playing field” to compare certificate to certificate, but will they perceive that I took an “easier option” than my competitors if I use an unaccredited registrar?  
4. Will I need to add another standard to my registration in the future?  The management elements of the ISO standards themselves are standardized – it’s fairly easy to add additional standards to an existing registration.  If I hold a certificate by an unaccredited certification body, do they have the capability / expertise to be able to quote a multi-standard registration if they have already cut back on my days and still give me a fair indication of the health of my integrated system?
5. Who do I go to if I have an issue with my unaccredited certification body?  If I have a problem with my accredited certification body, I can always report them to their accreditation agency (ANAB, SCC, UKAS, RvA etc.) Will the oversight body of an unaccredited certification body have the same clout as that of an accredited one?

The underlying thought behind all of these questions is “What do I want to get out of my registration?”  Your answer should be “Value for money”.

Value for money can be measured in variables that go far beyond price alone.  Always remember:

• A certification body exists to assist you achieve and maintain certification as apposed to preventing or hindering it.
• Auditing and consulting going hand in hand is a large selling point of the unaccredited certification body; however accreditation rules permit the giving of “non-specific advice” by an accredited certification body.  Non-specific advice from an accredited registrar taps the knowledge and experience of the auditor, but leaves the decision on system change to the client – the people responsible for running the management system.
• Certification is a two-way street.  You have a responsibility to educate us to how you do business so that we see you conform to your chosen standards.
• Accredited registration opens you up to a network of resources and tools before, during and after your certification visit.  If you don’t like the price of your registration, talk to your certification body, or go with a smaller one!

The key to a successful certification lies in establishing a meaningful, long term relationship with your certification body.  Certification is a unique business opportunity for us as the certifier and you as the customer – although the certification body performs a service for a fee, we have been invited in to your premises at your request; therefore your expectations are automatically higher.  Aspects such as demonstrating that after your audit is over we still care, the ability to solve problems before they grow into larger issues and the “safety net” of having accrediting body oversight outweigh the price advantage alone and should always be taken into account when choosing, or recertifying with your current certification body.

Malcolm Ting is a Registered Lead Auditor and is currently employed as a Global Key Account Manager, responsible for managing and executing multiple-country projects for SSC’s international clients.