Dear All
In ISO22K, it is not the size of a CB but the experience together with his/her technical background counts. My engineering friend knows it too well that he will be out of the scene soon after the publication of ISO22003.
It is a worldwide problem; even the current training organisations for A/L auditor are confronting with similar problems. It would be nice if someone from a FSMS training organisation/ a competent food trainer could make comments on this.
Regards/Wayne
Hello to All
Your concerns expressed above are certainly valid.
In fact, they are very similar to the auditing concerns that were expressed some years ago when the certifications of QMS to ISO 9001:2000 were at their peak.
Organizations were worried about getting an auditor that would be familar with their industry, their products and understand their way of doing things.
Since those early years of registration / certification activities, more than 500,000 organization worldwide have enjoyed the benefits of formal management systems.
For the most part, the auditing and certification of management systems whether they are Quality or Environmental or Food Safety or others follow a sequence of activities that have de-mystified the process and prepare all parties for the audit.
These are:
1. Auditors realize that they cannot be experts in all fields and recognize that the organization being audited is the expert in their business. They need to work with you and you need to work with auditors .. they are not the enemy.
2. As experts in the business, organizations describe their management system in a documented '
manual' that is submitted to a certification body well in advance of the certification audit.
3. The CB does a desk / documentation review of this system to confirm that it meets the intent of the ISO standard. If not, upgrading is required for implementation prior to the certification audit.
4. Upon confirmation that the system meets the intent of the standard, the standard itself (ISO 9001, or ISO 14001, or GMP, etc) is set aside and not used for auditing purposes.
5. The "Approved
Manual" is the document that is used by the auditors to design checklists or other aids to conduct the certification audit.
6. This ensures that "No New Requirements" are introduced at the discretion of auditors so that the management system that is audited is one that the organization has been using for at least 3 months.
7. With a relatively new system in place, it is predictable that some non-conformances will surface. These are generally minor in nature and can be corrected relatively quickly.
8. With the corrections in place, the Registration Certificate is usually awarded by the CB within 1 month of the certification visit by the auditor.
.. Apologies for rambling on .. I know that lessons were learned with the certification of QMS and have reasons to believe that they can be applied to a
FSMS.
Cheers and good luck !!
Lorne