How to Select a Certification Body

These are the factors you need to consider when choosing a certification body to audit your ISO 9001Quality Management System.

Cost of Certification 

Certification bodies can vary substantially in this respect. Certification bodies will give you cost for 3 years which will include:

Certification audits are undertaken in a three-year cycle. What you need to find out is the cost of the following services:

• Certification audit
• Surveillance audits – these are yearly audits. The frequency of these audits is determined by the size of your organisation.
• Recertification audits – these audits are conducted every three years and are more comprehensive than the surveillance audits.

Cost of certification is an important criteria to select a certification body but our experience shows that expensive Certification bodies may not necessarily provide the best in class services and may not be a good choice looking at value for money.

Experience in Your Industry 

Find out if the auditors will have relevant experience in your industry.

Accreditation

Ask if the Certification body is accredited and by whom. Also, you should be aware that Accreditation is not a mandatory requirement in many countries, it is done by choice by the certification bodies. Some Certification Bodies do not go for Accreditation but follow all the required processes. In Australia, most Certification bodies are accredited by JAS-ANZ.

Recommendations

Our best advice is to ask for your consultant’s recommendations. Your consultant has already used a variety of accreditation services and can help you to seek out the most affordable and appropriate accreditation service for your business.

Locality

Another important factor that you should check is whether the certification body has auditors in your state.  This is important as you will need to bear the travel expenses which may increase your overall cost.

Finding a Certification Body

There are 137 certification bodies in Australia, find the list here.