Cement, Energy and Environment

If the organizations arc not proactive on the change from version 1994 to version 2000, the certification bodies would be sieged by the demand to carry out audits in the last 3 &4 months of the three year period. This excessive rush a t the end of the period would result in shortage of good auditing personnel and the possibility that some of the organizations are not audited within the time period making them loose their certified status. Moreover the changeover from version 1994 to 2000 is not simple. The organizations that have been certified to 1994 standards can be classified into two categories. The first one being the Quality organ iza tions that a re proactive, their top management is fully involved in the Quality Management system and have gone for certification to bring about continual improvements in their operations and business results. Such organizations would have no problem in changing over from version 1994 to 2000 as these organiza tions are thoroughly s upported by the top management in their efforts to improve. The second type of organization has gone for certification for the sake of obtaining a certificate, were driven by one of their major customers who possibly threatened that for continued business it wanted all its suppliers to go for ISO 9000 certification. Such organizations can be further divided into two categories. The first category realized that they have benefitted by implementing the s tandards. Such organizations are also likely to changeover but with some difficulty as they are s till in the learning process. Their top management could be comparatively less willing to provide appropriate resources and training for the development of the Quality Management Systems of their organization in accordance with the ISO 9001: 2000 standard. The second category of the organization is that needs to maintain the certificate for the sake of certificate. There has been no internaliza tion of the system. The certification bodies that are auditing the organizations against ISO 9001: 2000 for transition from 1994 to 2000 version or for fresh certification would have to be careful as the new version of the standard contains many soft requirements like top management commitment, internal communications, work environment e tc. More focus during auditing has also to be given to the business results, continual improvement and corrective and p reventive actions. With the removal of ISO 9002 s tandard, the new version of the s tandard also prescribes that exemptions can be provided only in the clause 7 that covers the prod uct realization process and each of the exemption has to be justified in the quality manual of the organization. The s tructure of the eight quality management principl es and the process approach ca lled for in clause 4.1 should be vis ible in the background of the Qua lity Management System of the organization. Courtesy: CREST, Newsletter of Quality– council of Indin Apr.- fun .2002, Ppl-2, Fax: 91-11-3379621 E-mail: qcisg@bol.net. in Web: www.qcin.org