If company wants to obtain an ISO 9001 quality management system certificate must take 4 steps:
- implement the requirements of ISO 9001
- have a functioning quality management system
- select a certification body
- pass the certification audit
The ISO 9001 certificate is issued for three years. Every year, the certification body carries out a surveillance audit to check whether the system is maintained and improved in accordance with the requirements of the standard. After two surveillance audits, the certificate is renewed. At the end of the ISO 9001 certificate validity, the unit carries out a recertification audit and issues a new certificate, valid for the next 3 years. These audits differ from each other in the scope of the company’s activity, which is checked during the audit:
Certification audit – the full scope of the quality management system is checked
Supervision audit – a selected area of the quality management system and areas where non-conformities were detected during the previous audit are checked
Recertification audit – the entire area of the quality management system is checked
It should be mentioned that Audit is a systematic, independent and documented process of obtaining audit evidence and evaluating it objectively in order to determine the extent to which audit criteria are met. An audit is a sample study. During the audit, not the entire area is examined, but a sample of it, on the basis of which it is concluded as to the condition of the whole area.