GENERAL RULE AND REGULATION FOR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM REGISTRATION (OSS/QI/11, Rev-01)
INTRODUCTION
Today’s present competitive and regulatory world it is important providing assurance of the management systems for companies over a range of manufacturing and service sectors of their management system. International management systems standards / specification addressees the minimum documentation requirement for a documented management system to be established and has now become an International / National criteria of assessing a company’s credibility and capability to ensure good standards of Certificate of Conformance consistently and to enhance the customer satisfaction & Continual Improvement.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this description of the OSS Management System Certification Scheme is to provide relevant information regarding OSS Certification Services for conducting an impartial and competent assessment of a company’s management system for issue and maintenance of certification to the applicable standards/Specification.
SCOPE
The certification scheme provided by OSS Certification Services is a third party system certification scheme with an objective of giving recognition to companies who have effectively implemented and maintained the documented system.
Scope follows as below:
- Preliminary meeting to established scope of registration and the applicable standard for assessment (this might be a client visit or tele-conversation)
- Conduct of independent assessment for certification/ registration
- Issue of certification
- Surveillance visits for verification of conformance of management systems to certification standard
- Supplementary/ Re-assessments (required where major non conformities have been identified or major changes in the organization or its system have been identified/ notified.
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Enquiry and Request for proposal: Upon receipt of an enquiry, the Form F 10, 11 & 13 Company Profile Questionnaire is required to be completed by the applicant company. Based upon the information provided, a detailed offer is submitted for client’s consideration and acceptance.
Application: Upon confirmation of acceptance of OSS Certification Services, quotation proposal and the receipt of client’s application together with the application charges, the process of certification commences with scheduling of audits on mutually agreeable dates.
Application and certification charges are evaluated based on the Mandays required for the applicant for stage 1 and stage 2 audit. the man days shall be based on the guideline IAF MD 5 2009
STAGE – 1 Audit (DOCUMENTATION REVIEW)
An onsite review of the client’s management systems documentation is conducted to verify that the requirements of the management standard are satisfactorily implemented and documented. Audit report (Stage – 1) is issued listing any non-conformity against which corrective actions are required to be taken.
OSS expects its clients to implement their Management System at least 3 months prior to an onsite Registration Assessment which need to be confirmed at this stage.
STAGE – 2 Audit (Site Audit)
Inline with the stage -1 audit , OSS Certification Services will conduct the
Registration Assessment either at all sites or sampled (as the cases may be) to assess conformity with the requirements of the applicable standard. This will include a thorough effectiveness assessment of Internal Audit, Management review, Corrective Action & Preventive Action Processes. A report categorizing any non-conformities or Lack ness in the implementation of the documented systems is issued.
CORRECTIVE ACTIONS AND FOLLOW-UP
Client is required to submit a corrective action plan and where practical objective evidences addressing the non-conformities within a given time frame. For Minor non-conformities, the assessment report includes a request for Corrective Action Plan and objective evidences in order to eliminate the cause of the non-conformities. Corrective actions against all major non-conformities required to be verified during a Supplementary Assessment evidence of effective implementation, prior to confirmation of certification. Observations are also recorded relating to various elements of the management system but do nevertheless indicate a problem, which may need correction.
(OSS Certification Services requires it’s applicant organization to make all necessary arrangements for the conduct of the assessment, including provision for examining documentation and the access to all areas, records (including internal audit reports) and personnel for the purposes of assessment, surveillance, reassessment and resolution of complaints) ;
Assessors are only recommending authorities. These recommendations are impartially verified through Review of Assessment Report Pack & for successful cases of Certification Decision.
CERTIFICATION DECISIONS
• An Impartial Competent Certification Reviewer reviews the recommendations and if found satisfactory , then reviewer will recommend CEO for the Grant of the Certification Decision/Registration.
• Certification/registration shall not be granted until there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that in addition the
arrangements for management review and internal audits have been effective and maintained.. The reviewer make the
Comments specific about this in check sheet.
ISSUE OF CERTIFICATE
Upon completion of the review of all audit documentation and corrective action plan being accepted, OSS will issue the Certification to Registration of the company. This will be subject to the due payments against the invoice(s) issued to the client are cleared by the client to OSS .
VALIDITIY AND RENEWAL OF CERTIFICATES
Certificates issued by OSS remain valid for a period of three years from the date of Registration Assessment subject to satisfactory conformance with the certification standards as verified during periodic surveillance visits Certificates will be renewed without a renewal fee unless a re-certification audit is specially warranted in which case an appropriate fee will be charged.
SURVEILLANCE ASSESSMENT
All certified companies will be subjected to a surveillance audits (either six monthly of Annually) .The first surveillance visit being scheduled on a suitable date, six months or twelve months from the date of registration assessment. The Organization may choose either scheme of Surveillance Audit at the time of Contract Review with OSS.
In case of delay for more than a month with out a valid justification will lead to the conduct of a reassessment. OSS reserves this right to conduct such re assessment. In case the due 3 yearly reassessment is delayed more than a month, OSS reserves a right to either suspend the registration or conduct a full assessment again.
SUPPLEMENTARY ASSESSMENT
A Supplementary Assessment visit may require to be made to the company’s premises in the following circumstances:
 1.OSS has reason to believe that the documented management systems are inadequately maintained with major deficiencies in operation. 2.Upon intimation by the certified company, of any significant change in the certified documented management system.
3.As a result of a complaint, by any party, any adverse publicity or contravention of the conditions of certification or other information received.
The supplementary assessment visit will be undertaken after due notice has been given and details agreed between OSS Certification Services and the certified company. A separate fee will be chargeable for a Supplementary Assessment.
MAINTENANCE OF CERTIFICATION / REGISTRATION
Certification / Registration remain valid in case of:
• Maintaining an effective Management System
• All Surveillance / Re assessments getting conducted as per schedule
• All corrective actions getting resolved in case of a major Non conformity or Complaint in stipulated time frame and to the satisfaction of the Lead assessor/ Assessor.
• Any major change in the organization/Management System is handled satisfactorily and promptly communicated to OSS
• Al the fee payable has been paid to OSS in time.
Notice of changes by a client:
To ensure that the certified client informs the OSS , without delay, of matters that may affect the capability of the management system to continue to fulfill the requirements of the standard used for certification. These include, changes relating to:
• The legal, commercial, organizational status or ownership,
• Organization and management (e.g. key managerial, decision-making or technical staff),
• contact address and sites,
• Scope of operations under the certified management system, and
• Major changes to the management system and processes.
SUSPENTION OR WITHDRAWAL (CANCELLATION) OF CERTIFICATION
Any certificate issued by OSS may be suspended or withdrawn (based on severity of breach) in the event of any of following defaults by a certificate holder.
_ If a surveillance assessment is not arranged within 3 months of the due date in response to notice issued by OSS Certification Services
_ Major lack of effective implementation corrective actions within agreed time limits in respect of non-conformities identified during
Surveillance Assessment.
_ Failure to pay appropriate fees.
_ Continued misuse of Accreditation mark / logo e.g. misleading publications, advertisement or contravention of the stipulated conditions for the use of Accreditation mark/ OSS logo.
_ Major changes in the organization leading to the breakdown of relevant management system as per application standard.
_ Any Proven Conflict of Interests become known to the Management of OSS in due course after the release of Registration in such a way that Impartiality to the certification recommendation had been compromised and the Registered organization declines the OSS request to undergo an additional Re Assessment.
All the certificates issued by OSS are the property of OSS and an organization is liable to return all original and copied sets to OSS in the event of any of above defaults.
Upon Withdrawal the Client shall discontinue its use of all advertising matter that contains any reference to a certified status.
AVAILABILITY OF OSS DOCUMENTS OR INFORMATION
As a valued customer you have right to following information about OSS , which may be asked in writing to CEO of OSS
with an explanation on objective of the information being sought:
• Information about the authority under which it operates
• A description of the means by which it obtains financial support and general information on the fees charged to applicants and certified/registered organizations
• a description of the rights and duties of applicants and certified/registered organizations, including requirements, restrictions or limitations on the use of it’s logo and on the ways of referring to the certification/registration granted
APPEALS/ COMPLAINTS
OSS in certification scheme endeavors to provide a prompt, competent and impartial service to its clients. In
case, an applicant, a certified company or any other interested party wishes to make a complaint in respect of the operation of OSS certification scheme or appeal against a decision of the OSS which is considered to be unfair and prejudicial to the interests of the complaint OSS Certification Services will consider the complaint or appeal in accordance with procedure OSS-P-10 of the OSS .The copy of Appeal / Complaint Handling Process is publicly available on www.osscertification.com .
ACCESS TO RECORDS OF COMPLAINTS TO ORGANISATIONS
OSS Certification Services requires each organization whose quality management system is certified/registered to make
Available, when requested, the record of all complaints and corrective action taken in accordance with the requirements of the management system standards or other normative documents.
A certified company is entitled to use the Accreditation mark/ logo on its stationery, advertising and publicity brochure etc. for promotional purposes but not on the actual product. The use of Logo is governed by the OSS conditions and instructions applicable to the use of Accreditation and certification marks by certificated companies.
GENERAL GUIDELINES
CONFIDENTIALITY
All assessments are conducted in complete confidentiality of the company’s activities OSS office staff and auditing personnel are bound by a confidentiality agreement to safeguard the client’s information. All our staff is bound by a written confidentiality undertaking. To fulfill Accreditation Requirements OSS will be making available the information related to your Registration as Publicly Accessible or provided upon request .Where the OSS is required by law to release confidential information to a third party, OSS will notify the client in advance of the information provided.
OSS CERTIFICATION SERVICES REGISTRATION OWNERSHIP
The certificate and OSS registered Logo shall remain the property of OSS.
SAFETY
Client is responsible for ensuring that when OSS Audit Team visits your sites, Applicant client should have adequate arrangement of protective equipment for the safety. Where specialist training is required this is to be disclosed to OSS from the beginning. Please raise these matters with OSS in advance of a visit.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
LAW
This agreement shall be governed by Indian law and the parties agree to submit to the non exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of NEW DELHI in India.
OSS liability in respect of any single event or series of events for breach of OSS obligations in this Contract Terms & Scheme for Registration shall be strictly limited to the amounts payable by you to OSS in the 12 months preceding the date of the event or events. OSS Certification Services is not liable for any other liability (including any third party liability) claim what so ever is claimed by the client to OSS. OSS is not liable for any claims passed by its clients in case their products or services malfunctions with their own clients or users.
All assessments undertaken by OSS are conducted by Qualified Lead Auditor / Auditors/ Associates with expertise matched with the nature of an applicant company’s activities under assessment. The company is advised in advance of the composition of the Audit Team and the schedule of audit for confirmation. The Lead Auditor is responsible for planning the assessment in accordance with the requirements, assigning auditing functions to his team members and reporting with authority to take final decisions in respect of the interpretation of the applicable requirements of the standard as well as makes recommendation regarding grant of certification based upon a review of the level of compliance of the systems in operation. The applicant company is responsible for providing OSS Assessors, an access to its relevant facilities and records, appointing a responsible person to co-ordinate the arrangements for assessment and to provide all resources required by the audit team for performing their duties. In case the Applicant Company wish to request for postponement of a scheduled assessment, then the request must be given to OSS 15 days in advance or else OSS may charge the full assessment fee.
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