IAS July 2021 - Flipbook - Page 7
IAS NEWSLETTER July 2021
Do you know your MSCB?
By Ganesh Bhat, IAS Lead Assessor
Those of you who have
experienced the Management
System Certification Bodies
(MSCB) accreditation process
probably know the complexity of
the assessment method. There
are numerous standards and
documents to be considered—from
ISO/IEC 17021-1 and supporting
competence standards such as
ISO/IEC 17021-2 and 17021-3, to
scheme-specific standards such
as ISO/TS 22003 and ISO/IEC
27006. Finally, there are number of
International Accreditation Forum
mandatory documents (IAF MDs)
available to help ensure MSCBs demonstrate competence in meeting
all of the above requirements.
Under the MSCB program, the certification body is required
to demonstrate competence in each technical area within the
respective standards. The technical scopes are defined in IAF-ID-01
for QMS, EMS and OHSMS standards and ISO/TS 22003 for FSMS.
Further, IAF MD17 and MD16 stipulate how these scopes can be
granted to the MSCB and what witnessing activities are required.
These witnessing activities are performed by an accreditation
body (AB) that observes, without interfering or influencing, an audit
performed by an MSCB’s audit team. Depending on the objectives
of the witnessing, the complete audit may be observed or just
the relevant parts of the audit. The witnessing is done on-site at
the MSCB’s client’s premises or by observing an audit remotely
via electronic means. Each of the technical clusters need to be
witnessed by the AB before granting the scopes to the MSCB. To
get a broad spectrum of scopes, the MSCB must provide multiple
witness audits to the AB and also demonstrate the necessary
competence to manage all aspects of the audit activities related to
the technical area. An optimal witness assessment activity provided
by the AB may be helpful to achieving a wider range of scopes,
and hence reduce the cost of accreditation. As always, this will be
consistent with the applicable IAF MD requirements.
The point of this article is to describe situations where the MSCB
wants to cover more than one scope/codes from the witness
performed. It is important that the IAS team reviews the scope/
codes and judges whether the client’s scope covers multiple
activities or not.
In one instance, the MSCB offered a witness for a food
manufacturing client with the scope, “Manufacturing Storage and
Supply of Spices”. The standards covered were ISO 9001:2015,
ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 22000:2018. The MSCB claimed IAF
codes 3 (food manufacturing) and 31 (transport, storage and
communication). If this was acceptable to IAS, the MSCB would
have covered the witnessing requirements for FSMS category C, and
IAF categories 3 and 31. When the activities were analyzed by IAS,
it was understood that the MSCB’s client was manufacturing and
selling the spices and, as a routine process, storing the product as
per the preservation requirements for any such products. Hence,
if the word “storage” in the scope is noted, it does not necessarily
mean the activities fall under the IAF code 31 also. When critically
observed, the IAF code 31 includes the process of warehousing and
storage facilities (NACE 52.10) for transportation; hence, the storage
facilities within a factory are not covered under IAF code 31.
Another observation example is the assembly line of an automobile
manufacturing plant, where various items made of plastic, rubber,
etc. were used. Unless the factory manufactures items made from
plastic and rubber on its own, this activity does not qualify the client
for IAF code 14 (manufacture of rubber and plastic products). In
other words, if the items are purchased items, the scope does not
include IAF code 14.
As illustrated above, it is important for the AB assessor to review the
scope, processes followed, products manufactured, and services
offered before accepting the witness audit for the IAF codes. If
the scope/activities only cover the main activities (example: food
manufacturing), IAS can only consider the main IAF code applicable
to that part of the scope (IAF code 3). If a client’s activities cover
the supplementary activities, then IAS can consider the other
codes applicable, provided the activities meet the IAF/NACE code
classifications.
APAC Celebrates World Accreditation Day
Third-Party Marks of Conformity
Standard—Work in Progress!
By George Anastasopoulos, Ph.D.,
IAS Vice President of Global Development and Compliance
The revision process of the international
standard ISO/IEC 17030:2003, “Conformity
assessment — General requirements for
third-party marks of conformity,” is in progress. The new draft version of ISO/IEC DIS
17030:2021, has been recently approved by
ISO members.
The prime purpose of this standard is to enable a uniform approach to the use of thirdparty marks of conformity, to fill relevant
gaps in existing ISO, IEC, ISO/IEC standards
and guides, and to address potential problems arising from different uses of thirdparty marks of conformity. It concentrates
on third-party marks of conformity but may
also be used as guidance for other applications of marks of conformity.
Marks of conformity have different uses and
can take different forms in various media
such as employing QR codes, public ledger
technology (e.g., blockchain) or other electronic means. They are found on products
and certificates and in publications denoting
the conformity to specified requirements
of a product, management system, service,
process, person or an organization. Marks
of conformity used on a product convey to
the user that the product fulfills the requirements for characteristics such as its safety,
quality, performance, reliability or impact
on the environment. Most important for all
marks of conformity is to gain the confidence of the market, including consumers,
in products and other objects of conformity
assessment to which these marks have been
applied.
The standard is addressing issues related
to the object of conformity assessment and
providing answers to various questions,
such as, “Which conformity assessment
body is providing the third-party mark of
conformity?” “Who requires the third-party
conformity assessment activity?” “Why is
this third-party mark of conformity required?” “How is the information of conformity best transmitted to the interested
parties (e.g., customers, users, government
authorities)?”
The next step is to issue the final-draft version of the standard, and if possible, finalize
the process by publishing it by the end of
2021.
IAS experts participate actively in many ISO
technical committees, including ISO/CASCO,
providing to all of us the latest updates for
all developments related to conformity assessment issues.
IAS Activities in the Americas
In November 2020, IAS presented at INOFOOD, an event organized by
Eurofins, an international group of laboratories based in Luxembourg
with certain labs that are IAS-accredited. Attended by representatives from all sectors of the food industry, INOFOOD is one of Latin
America’s largest events promoting food safety.
During the summit, IAS Senior Global Manager Dimitrios Katsieris
presented on the topic, “Laboratory Accreditation, an International
Vision,” which gave insight on what is necessary to have an accredited laboratory and the importance of understanding the requirements for accreditation.
IAS also participated in a poster exhibition sponsored by INOFOOD
and the Chilean Corporation for Food Protection (CHAPF), the
Chilean chapter of the International Association for Food Protection. Prepared by Alberto Herrera, Mohan Sabaratnam and Vikram
Haridass, Ph.D., the poster highlights the most common challenges
that food testing laboratories face during the accreditation process.
You can view the poster here.
IAS continues to serve the needs of our customers and other inquirers from Latin American as manufacturers and service providers
continue to seek access to North America and other global markets.
In this regard, to better serve the needs of our customers, IAS has
is now Full Member of the InterAmerican Accreditation Cooperation
(IAAC) and will also be seeking IAAC MLA membership and recognition. IAAC is a regional association of accreditation bodies and other
organizations in the Americas. The organization’s geographic territory includes most of Central and South America, Canada, the U.S.A.
and Caribbean countries.
The Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC), an international organization with
member accreditation bodies in 29 economies, held a virtual event on June 9, 2021, to
celebrate World Accreditation Day. Established by the International Accreditation Forum
(IAF) and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), this global initiative
promotes the value of accreditation.
Similar to other regional associations, IAAC promotes an accreditation body’s efforts to enhance conformity assessment structures,
and works in close cooperation with COPANT, SIM, IAF, ILAC, EA,
APAC, ARAC, AFRAC, OAS, PBT, IDB and other assessment bodies.
This year’s theme was, “Accreditation: Supporting the Implementation of the Sustainable
Development Goals.” Moderated by Greg West, IAS director, customer success group, the
event featured presentations from various individuals, including: Kwei Fern Chang, APAC
chair and director of accreditation for the Singapore Accreditation Council/Enterprise
Singapore; Tang Lin Teo, Ph.D., a member of the Executive Committee of the Asia Pacific
Metrology Programme, a regional metrology organization and partner of APAC; Brian
Krausz, lead for the U.S. EPA Energy Star Product Certification Program; Marcus Long, chief
executive of IIOC; Aparna Dhawan, Ph.D., APAC CPC chair and joint director of NABCB; and
Graeme Drake, APAC secretary.
If you have further questions, please reach out to Alberto Herrera,
senior manager, IAS Americas, at aherrera@iasonline.org.
Para mayores informes, por favor escriba a Alberto Herrera, gerente
senior, IAS Américas, a aherrera@iasonline.org.
To view a webinar recording of the event, click here.
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