ISO blues: quality takes a hit as certifying bodies compromise

Posted: Wednesday, Jul 13, 2005 at 0000 hrs IST
Updated: Wednesday, Jul 13, 2005 at 0000 hrs IST

Font Size

Feedback

Discuss

Discount UK Shopping

New Delhi, July 12: Competition among quality certification bodies has forced many to take the short cut and compromise on certain mandatory standards of ISO certification rather than lose business.

Girdhar J Gyani, secretary-general, Quality Council of India, said cases were reported where some certifying bodies are “diluting the process of certification”. Quality stamps are sometimes given without ensuring full compliance with ISO standards, he said. Further, because of competiton, some bodies turn lax on the number of mandays stipulated by the International Accredition Forum (IAF).

IAF guidelines stipulate the number of mandays required, based on the total manpower of the industry, including contract labour which is not being adhered to in some cases, Mr Gyani said.

This led to poor quality of audit and the whole purpose of certification gets defeated. A large number of certification bodies are operating in India, competing at the cost of the certification process. Many certification bodies are operating as the branch office or franchisee of overseas accreditiion bodies.

Admitting deterioration of the certification processes, AS Arya, deputy director general (PPNC) of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the only certifying agency in India which is working under the Parliamentary Act 1986 said there are cases were both consulting and certifying done by the same agency which is like the same person giving tuition and conducting the examination.

To maintain the credibility in quality management system (QMS) certification, some PSUs have issued guidelines on the implementation and certification of QMS, through registered consultants, selection of appropriate certification bodies and considerations to be made at the time of contract view.

GOING WRONG

Quality stamps are given without ensuring compliance with ISO standards Some bodies ...

Post Comments

Comments: (Limit 3,000 characters)

Name		Message
Email ID
Subject

TERMS OF USE:
The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).

I agree to the terms of use.