Certification

The International Organization for Standardization produces thousands of standards every year covering multiple topics and disciplines. A certain group of those standards known as management system standards are designed to support organizations in delivering products and services that are higher in quality, safer, more resilient, and environmentally friendly.

Some organizations are required to implement these standards and some others to demonstrate their compliance with them. 

Certification of quality for an organization is simply a way of proving that an organization does indeed comply with the relevant standard(s). It does not involve implementing extra requirements or controls, and if an organization has already become truly compliant, certification should be a simple next step. 

Certification involves an audit being performed by an independent organization known as a certification body. A certification body will usually perform an audit over two stages. Stage one is a high-level review of the management system, whereas stage two is used to look at the management system in much closer detail to provide evidence of compliance in various areas. 

If an organization meets the requirements and is recommended for certification, then the certification is awarded for a period of two years. During that time the organization must undergo annual surveillance audits. Surveillance audits are much smaller than the original audit and are designed to check whether the organization is maintaining and improving its management system.