Accreditation
What accreditation is, who it benefits, and the programmes ICVR accredits.
What is Accreditation?
Accreditation is a process in which certification of competency, authority, or credibility is presented.
Organizations that issue credentials or certify third parties against standards are themselves formally accredited by accreditation bodies — sometimes known as “accredited certification bodies”. The accreditation process ensures that their certification practices are acceptable: competent to test and certify third parties, behaving ethically and employing suitable quality assurance.
In everyday language the terms Accreditation and Certification are often used interchangeably, but they have specific meanings. ISO’s formal definition of accreditation is “third-party attestation related to a conformity assessment body conveying formal demonstration of its competence to carry out specific conformity assessment tasks.”
Accredited organizations are known as Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs). They provide certification and inspection services. Common certified management systems include:
- Quality Management Systems (QMS — ISO 9001)
- Environmental Management Systems (EMS — ISO 14001)
- Occupational Health and Safety Management System (ISO 45001)
- Energy Management System (EnMS — ISO 50001) & many more
Beneficiaries & Accreditation Process
Beneficiaries
- The accredited bodies
- The industrial organizations
- The service organizations
- The consumer
- The national economy
Accreditation process
- Enquiry and formal application with applicable fee.
- Document review of the CAB manual, procedures and formats.
- Assessment of competence, including personnel competence and impartiality.
- Witness of assessment and certification activity.
- Grant of accreditation with defined scope and accreditation number.
- Ongoing surveillance, monitoring of certification activity, and reassessment.
Benefits of Accreditation
Credibility
A visible commitment to improve quality, reduce risk and demonstrate competence to customers and regulators.
Market access
Global acceptance of certificates and reports through equivalence and mutual recognition arrangements.
Improvement
Independent assessment drives continual improvement of products, services and management systems.
Management System Certification
ICVR accredits certification bodies operating management-system certification schemes (e.g. ISO/IEC 17021) including ISO 9001 (QMS), ISO 14001 (EMS), ISO 22000 (FSMS), ISO/IEC 27001 (ISMS), ISO 21001 (EOMS), ISO 45001 (OHSMS) and ISO 50001 (EnMS).
Applicants must demonstrate auditor competence, impartiality, consistent certification processes and effective surveillance of certified clients.
Product Certification
ICVR accredits bodies certifying products, processes and services against specified standards and regulatory requirements — including marks such as CE, GMP, HALAL, VEGAN, REACH, HACCP, ORGANIC, CMMI, RoHS and KOSHER where within the accredited scope.
Bodies must demonstrate product evaluation competence, impartiality and control of the use of certification marks.
Personal Certification
ICVR accredits personal certification bodies (e.g. ISO/IEC 17024) offering Lead Auditor and Internal Auditor training and certification across QMS, EMS, OHSMS, FSMS, ISMS, EnMS, BCMS, ITSMS, RTSMS, ABMS, FMS, AMS and HACCP levels.
Bodies must demonstrate examination validity, examiner competence and impartiality.
Inspection
An inspection is, most generally, an organized examination or formal evaluation exercise.
In engineering activities, inspection involves the measurements, tests, and gauges applied to certain characteristics of an object or activity. The results are usually compared to specified requirements and standards to determine whether the item or activity is in line with these targets. Inspections are usually non-destructive.
In international trade, several destination countries require pre-shipment inspection: the importer instructs the shipper which inspection company should be used, and the inspector produces pictures and a report certifying that the goods shipped and produced are in accordance with the accompanying documents.
Quality-related inspection is an essential part of quality control. In Europe, bodies involved in engineering inspection may be assessed by accreditation bodies according to ISO/IEC 17020 “General criteria for the operation of various types of bodies performing inspection”.
Common inspection methods
- Visual, microscopy, liquid/dye penetrant, magnetic-particle inspection
- X-ray / radiographic testing, ultrasonic testing, eddy-current testing
- Acoustic emission testing, thermographic inspection, check-weighing and precision measurement