Certifications accreditation

Certification, accreditation or some other information, such as external quality assessment and internal quaUty control procedures, indicating... 

Facilitate equivalence with international guidelines for organic certification, accreditation and labelling in order to encourage local, regional, and international trade in organic products. ... 

Measurement, Monitoring and measurement Clinical process management Audits, inspection, certification/accreditation. 

Are safety approval and certification/accreditation processes effective ... 

This final rule also contains provisions for interested states, territories, and tribes to apply for and receive authorization to administer their own renovation, repair, and painting programs in lieu of the proposed regulation. States, territories, and tribes may choose to administer and enforce just the existing requirements of Subpart E, the pre-renovation education elements, the training, certification, accreditation, work practice, and recordkeeping requirements of this final rule, or both. EPA will use the same process used for lead-based paint activities programs. 

One state commenter disagreed with EPA s proposed approach and requested that EPA authorize state, territorial, or tribal programs that incorporate only the training, certification, accreditation, and work practices of this final rnle becanse TSCA section 404 allows states to administer and enforce the standards, regulations, or other reqnirements established under TSCA section 402 or TSCA section 406, or both. EPA agrees with this commenter s reading of TSCA. Therefore, this final rule provides for the authorization of state, territorial, or tribal programs that inclnde either the pre-renovation edncation... 

General requirements for assessment and accreditation of certification/registration bodies... 

ISO 9000 is not a statutory requirement and neither is certification, hence certification is voluntary. However, suppliers may be under pressure to obtain registration to ISO 9001, ISO 9002, or ISO 9003 in order to tender for contracts. Within the ISO 9000 certification scheme, the certification industry is regulated by accreditation bodies. An International Accreditation Forum (lAF) attempts to harmonize accreditation practices world-wide through ISO Guide 61. The accreditation bodies authorize certification bodies to conduct certification to prescribed standards - a process that is called accreditation. The accreditation body performs witness audits and desk audits of the certification body to ensure compliance with the conditions of accreditation. 

To receive ISO 9000 accreditation, a certification body must meet the requirements of ISO Guide 62 and EN 45012, which invokes ISO 10011. There is normally a mark of accreditation (a Grown and Tick in the case of UKAS accreditation) that certification bodies use to signify their credibility. Once accredited, a certification body may perform audits on suppliers offering products and services within the scope of accreditation. In theory, accreditation is granted only if the certification body has expertise (i.e. competent auditors) for the particular industry sectors (EAG codes) requested. 

In many countries, there is no law prohibiting an organization setting up as either an accreditation body or a certification body. 

In many countries, both accreditation and certification bodies are commercial organizations that operate without government funding and therefore they are governed by supply and demand. 

The customer does not have any power of veto over the issuing or withdrawal of either accreditation or certification. 

Demand that the suppliers be registered by an accredited certification body. 

The certification business has grown enormously in the last ten years. The International Accreditation Forum (lAF) recorded 616 accredited certification bodies in January 1999. The experience of the vehicle manufacturers with ISO 9000 certification led them to question the wisdom of so many certification bodies chasing the same business in a competitive market. The results seemed to indicate that cost reductions by the certification bodies led to a decline in the quality of auditing and that was the opposite of what the vehicle manufacturers wanted. The vehicle manufacturers had not seen a significant rise in product quality as a result of ISO 9000 and they believed this was partially due to the quality of the accreditation and certification schemes being operated as well as inadequacies in the quality system standard. When the four national automotive schemes were launched, great emphasis was placed on regulating more closely the accreditation and certification schemes. From a customer perspective, the ISO 10011 scheme had some particular problems ... 

The accreditation body rather than the industry determines which certification bodies are qualified to issue certificates. 

Although the schemes exist to satisfy the needs of industry, industry has no power to verify that the standards are being maintained by the accreditation and certification bodies. 

The industry regulates the certification bodies, in addition to them being regulated by accreditation. 

This would check the certification status of the quality system, verifying that any certification was properly accredited. For non-ISO 9000 registered subcontractors, a quality system assessment may be carried out at this stage either to ISO 9000 or the customer s standards. 

Primary stroke center certification guide. Oakbrook, IL Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations 2005. 

A remarkable level of activity can be seen in China. The National Research Center for CRM (NRCCRM) was founded in 1980 and the certification and accreditation program for CBW RMs started in 1983 by co-operation with many Chinese Institutions. In 1993 around 60 RMs and CRMs were available (Chai Chifang 1993) and in 1999 the availability of about 1000 CRMs was reported, around 30 of them clinical, 100 environmental, 200 geological, and 300 metallic matrix materials (Rong and Min 1999). 

As the uncertainty of the mean is now related to the mass used for analysis and it is based on a careful evaluation of the element distribution in the material, this approach could help to evaluate further the total uncertainty budget for various analytical techniques as is required in accreditation and certification campaigns. 

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