Faqs
How long does it take and how much will it cost?
The time taken and the cost to achieve accreditation
will vary depending upon the following things. The standard (s) you are
hoping to achieve certification for as they all vary with the amount of work
involved. For example ISO 9001 is all about your working processes so
pre-dominantly is looking at what you're doing to manage your customers; it
has been thought that most organisations are already 50% on their way to
accreditation before even starting to work for ISO 9001 and it is a case of
getting that information into a formalised way.
Should you choose to do ISO 14001, it's will include undertaking an
environmental review and determining what out of your processes you have the
potential to reduce or to improve. Similarly if you choose BS OHSAS 18001,
there are legislations that you must comply with to gain accreditation which
include completing sufficient risk assessments. And similarly you can choose
ISO TS 16949 certification service.
The complexity of your organisation e.g. what and how you provide your
service and / or manufacture your product. Geographical locations e.g. do
you operate out of 1 site or 10? The system should be adopted at all of your
sites
The certification body you choose. Their availability will matter
significantly in the process of achieving accreditation. Some will be
available in 2 months, others in 4 months. Similarly for most management
standards, most certification bodies adopt a two stage certification
approach; Stage 1 will include completing a gap analysis of the system to
establish your readiness, Stage 2 or the final assessment will then
encompass a full audit of the management system (the pass or fail scenario)
The amount of employees involved in the organisation. Why? Because generally
more people mean more processes and these will all have to be considered in
the accreditation scope. This will also affect your assessment duration;
more people will result in more days required by the assessment body.
How much will my assessment cost?
This cost will vary depending upon the certification
body you choose.
