TechArchive

Original article date: September 1999

JULIAN PRATT, managing director of precision balls supplier Spheric Engineering, explains some of the complexities of the quality standard and what it really means!

Like many companies who supply high quality products under the best possible conditions of service and support, Spheric Engineering jumped at the opportunity to be able to demonstrate this by obtaining the coveted BS EN ISO 9002 quality standard (often abbreviated to ISO 9002), despite the hard work involved.

If you were to poll your principal clients and ask for their top five criteria for using your services, quality (and all it entails, like product performance and consistency of delivery) would certainly rank among them – not infrequently, outperforming price. The business world is no longer sentimental about valued suppliers; you succeed or fail on your ability to satisfy the needs of your clients. So today, it’s all the more important to demonstrate that your organisation meets these requirements.

Yet until recently, quality meant different things to different people – so did the measurement of it. ISO 9002 should have changed all that. It provides a common ground – and common language – of quality which is readily understood world-wide. Any kind of organization can apply for ISO 9002 registration, whether a manufacturer, service industry, retailer, charity, educational, professional or public sector body.

Once committed to achieving the standard, it’s up to you to embark on analysing and documenting your own business procedures, preparing documentation and enhancing – or originating – your management system. Typically, you will appoint a Management Representative and deputy from among your workforce. You can carry out the necessary procedures using your own resources or use those of the certification body. Ultimately, though, the decisions and initiative have to be your own – the certification body cannot win the registration for you.

It’s important to recognise that the standard does not exist to tell you how to run your business. It’s there to provide a framework for management systems, procedures and instructions, within which you can formulate processes which reflect the personality and activity of your unique operation. And contrary to popular belief, it need not involve your staff in an excess of paperwork.

In the case of Spheric Engineering, our accredited body responsible for carrying out the audit was BVQI (Bureau Veritas Quality International), one of a number of accredited bodies which operate in this field. We also enlisted the help of an ISO 9002 consultant, John Harriyott of Quality Solutions. When the company received its approval, we were allowed to display what is known as a combination logo. This consists of a “crown-and-tick” on the right-hand side with the words “National Accreditation of Certification Bodies”, and on the left the logo of the accredited body which issued Certificate of Approval. Fig 1 shows a sample for our Certification Body, BVQI.

All fairly simple? Not so! Having obtained the quality standard ourselves, we decided to use it as a selection criterion for our suppliers too. Widening our investigation, we examined a range of trade advertisements. The majority on these bear no quality mark at all, which of course proves nothing one way or another, since it is not compulsory to include a quality logo on all your advertising material. But of the rest that do show a quality logo, by no means all – perhaps at least half – have the “crown-and-tick” logo. Not having the “crown-and-tick” logo MAY mean that the company is not certified by an accredited body. At the very least, it is a reasonable question to ask of that supplier before appointing it. Anything other than the “crown-and-tick” logo is open to question.

Another logo which is fairly commonly seen on advertising material is that of the BS5750 standard, the forerunner to ISO 9000. But since certificates are only valid for three years, this should no longer be shown on any promotional material, since the certification is no longer valid.

Thinking it worthy of further investigation, we first of all telephoned BSI (the British Standards Institution). Speaking to the Marketing Department, here we encountered our first surprise: although many people think that the BE EN ISO 9002 scheme is run by BSI, it isn’t! The scheme is actually administered by an organisation called UKAS. This stands for UK Accreditation Services, and is not to be confused with UCAS, the University and Colleges Admissions Service! . UKAS, formed by the merger of NAMAS and NACCB, is based in Feltham and is recognised by the British Government as the UK national body responsible for assessing and accrediting the competence of organisations in the fields of calibration, measurement, testing, inspection and the certification of systems, personnel and products. The tick-and-crown symbol is a UKAS logo, not a BSI logo.

The confusion arises because the forerunner to ISO 9002 was BS 5750 and this WAS administered by BSI. BSI was founded in 1901 and incorporated by Royal Charter in 1929. In 1979, BSI was first to publish the BS 5750 quality standard. In 1987, BS 5750 was adopted by the International Standards Organization as ISO 9000 In 1994, the harmonized standard was re-named BS EN ISO 9000. More than 70,000 organizations world-wide have already registered to ISO 9000

But now, as far as certification is concerned, BSI is just another player in the market: it is an accreditation certification body, but is just the equivalent of (for example) BVQI, even though it claims to be the largest such body. So it’s no use going to the BSI site and looking up to see who is registered, because it will only contain details of their customers, not anybody else’s. Spheric Engineering, for example, wouldn’t be listed there, because it is a customer of BVQI and not BSI.

As far as BSI knew, there is no overall register of all companies maintained by UKAS. And moving on to UKAS, we spoke to Liaison Officer Alan McGavican. He confirmed that the only accredited logos are the ones containing the crown-and-tick and the logo of the certificating body – the combination logo. But is it illegal to use an ISO 9002 logo? Apparently not! The only thing which it is illegal is to use the crown-and-tick mark without accreditation. Companies without approval can show the logo of a certificating body without the crown-and-tick mark without restriction – there is even nothing to stop you certificating yourself to ISO 9000, as long as you don’t claim accreditation!!

According to McGavican, there is a lot of abuse of the scheme going on, some of which is perfectly legal though designed to mislead, some of which is simply illegal. UKAS and the DTI are together looking into the matter and have been for about 18 months, but they are not prepared to say what actions are being taken. Anyone who suspects abuse can challenge the company concerned for its accreditation certificate and/or report them to UKAS or to the DTI.

A further form of abuse which is less common and which is certainly illegal is companies posing as ACCREDITED CERTIFICATION BODIES when they are not. This is clearly fraudulent and there are cases of it happening, but hopefully not too often! However, it is NOT mandatory for certification bodies to be independently accredited and, amazingly, only about two thirds are.

The demand for assessment to the quality management standard BS EN ISO 9000 and the evolving environmental management standards is increasing. So, too, are the dubious activities of some non-accredited certification bodies. The sales pitch, often accompanied by some sort of “tick-and-crown” is tempting: these certificates can be worthless. So much so that, according to UKAS, one local authority Trading Standards Service has gone into print warning local companies against registration to BS EN ISO 9000 by organisations not accredited by UKAS. ‘Local businesses,’ it says ‘are in danger of paying considerable sums of money for what may be a worthless certificate. The standing of those businesses which have gone through the recognised rigorous assessment process could be jeopardised by this attempt to provide a backdoor method of gaining what appears to be registered firm status’.

UKAS operates to international standards that outlaw accredited certification bodies from providing both consultancy and certification services to the same organisation – simply to maintain unquestionable impartiality. So if anyone offers to do both jobs at the same time, you will know they are not accredited. You would be well advised to check carefully: the consultancy arm and the certification arm may look independent, but may have common directors/management, similar names and similar logos. The safest way to is to check with UKAS that your certification body is accredited. Such accreditation is a demanding process carried out by UKAS, which, to protect the consumer, maintains a register of which certification bodies are accredited and you can search for them on the web site.

All UKAS accredited organisations can now use new accreditation marks in connection with their accredited activities. Regulations governing the use of the marks, including artwork for reproduction, have been sent to accredited organisations. The design of the new marks follows extensive consultation with interested parties, most of whom wanted to retain the Royal Crown. The Crown signifies government backing, through the DTI, for UKAS in its role as the sole national accreditation body. The Department of Trade and Industry has licensed UKAS to use the marks and to sub-license the use of these marks to UKAS accredited bodies. It is UKAS’ responsibility to ensure the rules for the use of marks, which are laid down by the Lord Chamberlain, are adhered to. Bodies already accredited by UKAS will have two years (i.e. to the end of 2000) to phase out the NAMAS and NACB marks. The exception is inspection bodies who will be using the new marks by the end of February 1999. You may still see the old NAMAS and NACB marks issued by some certificating bodies: this is not malpractice, just tardiness on the part of some certificating bodies to switch their customers over to the new scheme. But it all adds to the confusion. A copy of the Regulations is available from the web site as a PDF file.

So amidst all this confusion, is there a searchable register which lists all the actual companies which have been accredited? Happily yes, and it is maintained by The Stationery Office (formerly known as HMSO). The QA Register is the definitive source of information on over 60,000 companies offering a huge range of products and services. All the companies listed have been accredited in a given field having been assessed against the internationally recognised systems standard BS EN ISO 9000. The Register also gives details of the major accredited certification bodies in the UK and is published in association with UKAS. (The United Kingdom Accreditation Service)

The QA Register is the official bible for all companies serious about quality assurance and using quality assessed companies. It has been published by The Stationery Office for over 8 years and during that time has grown enormously both in content and importance to the business community. It is updated quarterly and currently provided here on the web and on CD-ROM.

The QA Register database holds information on over 60,000 companies, information which is being updated continuously with new companies achieving certified status and existing companies losing their certification. Also changes in company details, products and services and issues affecting the scope of any company’s certification are constantly being updated.

There’s a CD-ROM available on annual subscription of (UK pounds)199 which is updated quarterly (ie you get four issues for your money) and the subscription also covers a username and password to access a web version which is updated monthly. The corresponding web site address is www.quality-register.co.uk.

Besides providing up-to-date information on every company, supplied and verified by the certification bodies who issue the certificates, the on-line version can provide an instant link to each company’s e-mail address, where provided. Also, where provided by the company, additional information and access to specific company web sites is offered. The database is fully searchable by key words across all fields. Three levels of response are available from “Name and Address Only” to “Full Register Details and Internet Links”. In that way, companies can be confident that what they see is really what they get.

• BVQI
  Tel: 01908 366724
  Fax: 01908 366725
• BSI
  Tel: 0181 996 9000
• United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS)
  Tel: 0181 917 8400
  Fax: 0181 917 8500
  www.ukas.com/
• The Stationery Office
  Tel: 01603 695640
  Fax: 01603 696501

September 1999