In the spring of 2020, the new coronavirus infection pneumonia epidemic that has continued from the end of 2019 to the present has made the entire Chinese people experience an extraordinary "long holiday." When orderly resumption of work in all walks of life across the country, there is a special industry that directly or indirectly affects the resumption and resumption of production of many companies in other industries at home and abroad, as well as the bidding and bidding work at home and abroad, that is the certification body.
These institutions are very familiar or even indispensable to all kinds of production-oriented enterprises, laboratories, computer service enterprises and other enterprises. Especially after China's accession to the WTO, more and more Chinese enterprises have achieved trade in goods and services Globally, certificates issued by certification bodies are equivalent to endorsement of their products and services, and enterprise capabilities, and are also the reference standard for many project bids. On the other hand, the names of these certification bodies may be relatively unfamiliar to individual consumers, but when it comes to ISO9001 quality certification, people are familiar with it. In fact, the ISO system contains more than 12,000 standards. ISO9001 belongs to ISO9000 One of the family standards, the others are ISO/IEC 27000 (ISMS, information security management system), ISO 22000 (FSMS, food safety management system), ISO14000 (EMS, environmental management system), etc.
With the development of economic globalization and the development of new manufacturing and distribution technologies, hundreds of thousands of third-party conformity assessment agencies have emerged in countries around the world. These certification bodies inspect various products, materials, devices, equipment, processes, working procedures, and services in the public and private fields, and issue reports on various parameters such as quality, suitability, and safety. The goal is to reduce the risk of buyers, owners, users or consumers. With the increasing number of certification bodies, how to identify which certification bodies made the certification is effective and more recognized, and can accurately feed back the quality of the certified company's products and services to the public, this has to be mentioned The departments and organizations that supervise, evaluate and inspect the management and activities of these certification bodies.
1. IAF
1.1. Establishment of IAF
In order to break through global technical trade barriers and enable more companies to push high-quality business to the world, IAF came into being. IAF is the abbreviation of International Accreditation Forum. It is a multilateral cooperative organization attended by relevant national accreditation bodies. It was established on January 28, 1993 in Houston, USA. "Quality System Registration Agency and Certification Scheme Accreditation" Organize the first meeting. Representatives from the United States, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Japan attended the meeting. The purpose of IAF is to establish and develop a mutual recognition system between accreditation bodies to ensure that accreditation bodies use equivalent procedures, so that the certification of products, processes or services in one country or region should also be accepted in other countries or regions to achieve The purpose of "one-time certification, global acceptance" [1].
IAF members currently cover 93 countries and regions. It has established a multilateral mutual recognition agreement IAF MLA (Multilateral Recognition Arrangement), and the various institutions that signed MLA form the IAF MLA Group. The IAF also granted three regional accreditation organizations, the Pacific Accreditation Cooperation Organization (PAC), the European Accreditation Cooperation Organization (EA), and the Pan American Accreditation Cooperation Organization (IAAC), to specifically recognize qualifications and accept the mutual assistance agreements established by these regional organizations.
1.2. IAF Multilateral Mutual Recognition Agreement System
The IAF Quality Management System (QMS) MLA was first signed by 14 IAF members in Guangzhou, China on January 22, 1998. The IAF Environmental Management System (EMS) MLA was signed at the IAF General Assembly in Cape Town, South Africa in October 2004. In addition to the above-mentioned agreements, the multilateral mutual recognition agreements initiated and signed by IAF include (FSMS) MLA food safety management system, (ISMS) MLA information safety management system, and Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) and other multilateral mutual recognition agreements.
2. CNAS
2.1. Overview of CNAS
The member unit of China in the IAF system is CNAS (China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment, China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment), which is in accordance with the "Regulations for Certification and Accreditation of the People's Republic of China" CNCA) Approved the establishment and authorization of national accreditation agencies, unifiedly responsible for accreditation of certification agencies, laboratories and inspection agencies and other related agencies, and is the competent agency for the management, supervision and comprehensive coordination of national certification and accreditation efforts. The accreditation of organic product certification bodies, e-commerce transaction service certification bodies, and anti-doping laboratory approvals are all within the jurisdiction of CNAS.
2.2. Significance of CNAS accreditation
Once the certification bodies, laboratories, inspection institutions and other institutions have been accredited by CNAS, the gold content of their certification is self-evident. Overall, CNAS accreditation means [2]:
1. The certification body meets the requirements of the accreditation guidelines and has the ability to carry out certification services in accordance with the corresponding certification standards;
2. The market competitiveness of certification bodies is stronger, and the trust of the government and society is higher;
3. Obtain the trust of the accreditation bodies of the countries and regions of the International Mutual Recognition Agreement Group on the capabilities of certification bodies;
4. Participate in bilateral and multilateral cooperation and exchanges between international and interregional conformity assessment agencies;
5. Issue certification certificates with CNAS national recognition marks and international mutual recognition marks (such as QMS, EMS) within the scope of recognized business;
Sixth, included in the list of certification bodies accredited by CNAS to increase the visibility of certification bodies.
2.3. CNAS accreditation workflow
(Figure 1: Flowchart of CNAS accreditation work)
2.4. "Certified certification" and "Certified certification"
Taking the certificates of domestic certification bodies in China as an example, if you carefully identify the certification certificates issued by different certification bodies, you will find that there are certain differences in the certificates issued by them. Some all contain the IAF logo and the CNAS logo, and some only contain the CNAS logo. Some are not.
There is no doubt that there is a difference between "certified certification" and "non-standard certification", and the difference is very large. If we make an arrangement according to authority and international recognition:
1. A certificate with both the CNAS logo and the IAF logo, indicating that the content certified by the certificate issued by the certification body has been recognized by both CNAS and IAF;
2. Only carry the CNAS logo, indicating that the content certified by the certificate issued by the certification body has been recognized by CNAS;
3. There is no mark, indicating that the content certified by the certificate issued by the certification body is only recognized in the domestic certification field, and cannot be mutually recognized in the international certification field.
From the above differences, it is not difficult to see that in the process of selecting a certification body, an enterprise needs to clearly identify whether the certification body has obtained IAF, CNAS, etc. in the corresponding certification scope and certification content according to its business objectives, development strategies and operating regions. Recognition or mutual recognition by accredited institutions and organizations may mean that enterprises can more easily be recognized and trusted in domestic and international business competition.
3. Accreditation and certification under the influence of the epidemic
Under the influence of the epidemic, CNAS issued the "Notice on Recent Arrangements for Accreditation and Accreditation of Certification Bodies (Accreditation Committee (Secretary) [2020] No. 10) on February 4, 2020, which not only made corresponding arrangements for its own accreditation work , Suspend all on-site assessments (including pre-visits) of certification body accreditation work before the end of February, and document assessments will proceed normally. At the same time, it is worth noting that CNAS requires certification bodies to comply with IAF ID3:2011 Management of events or situations") principles and methods to implement certification activities.
The definition of "special event or situation" in this document is Article 2: "A circumstance beyond the control of the organization, commonly referred to as "Force Majeure" or "act of God". Examples are war, strike, riot, political instability, geopolitical tension, terrorism, crime, pandemic, flooding, earthquake, malicious computer hacking, other natural or man-made disasters.” (Organizations beyond the control of the situation, often referred to as “force majeure” or “God’s actions”. For example Wars, strikes, riots, political instability, geopolitical tensions, terrorist crimes, pandemics, floods, earthquakes, malicious computer hackers, other natural or man-made disasters.)
Regarding the principle and method of "special event or situation", the following points can be summarized in the IAF document:
1. When there is a situation that prevents certification organizations and conformity assessment bodies from conducting on-site audits, the risk of continuing certification should be assessed, and a written policy and process should be established that outlines the steps taken by the certification organization when it is affected by a special time;
2. The assessment agency should assess the current and expected future conditions, and organize the collection of necessary information such as: When can the assessed company be able to ship or perform services within the current certification scope? Does existing inventory still meet customer requirements? If the certification organization has passed the certification of the management system standard for the disaster recovery plan or emergency plan, has the certification organization implemented the plan and is it effective? To what extent has the operation of the management system been affected by "special events or circumstances"?
3. Timely notification and contact. If the contact cannot be made normally, the assessment agency should follow the normal process to suspend and revoke the certification;
4. Under sufficient circumstances, the validity period may be extended to 6 months after the original expiration date.
With the development of the epidemic, in order to ensure the major deployment of the new coronavirus infection pneumonia epidemic prevention and control work, and to ensure that the certification body can reasonably arrange and promote the orderly progress of the certification work, February 15, 2020, CNAS on the last On the basis of the document, the “Notice on the Arrangement of Accreditation Work during the Prevention and Control of the New Coronary Pneumonia Outbreak (Acceptance Committee (Secretary) [2020] No. 16)” (hereinafter referred to as “Circular 16”) Relevant arrangements have been made for the accreditation of certification bodies:
1. Accreditation work: The application for accreditation can be submitted, but the pre-visit, office review and witness review involved in the accreditation process are suspended, and document review and remote communication are implemented;
2. Adopt the remote evaluation method to carry out the accreditation evaluation on the electronic version of the evaluation materials and make an accreditation decision;
3. The certification body is required to submit information through the reporting platform on time, and notify the situation of "affected by the epidemic situation" during the epidemic situation.
At the same time, CNAS also released "Four Measures on Supporting Resumption of Production and Resumption of Production (Acceptance Committee (Secretary) [2020] No. 18) on February 18, 2020. This document supports the resumption of production of relevant certification bodies. The cold winter to help it withstand the epidemic has put forward real preferential policies, mainly for the following four points:
1. Business online
During the epidemic prevention and control period, strengthen the application of Internet and other scientific and technological means. Respond to customer inquiries through remote systems such as the recognition business system, e-mail, telephone, SMS, WeChat, etc., handle relevant recognition business, and advance the various recognition work in an orderly manner
2. Establish a green channel for recognition work directly related to epidemic prevention and control
For the relevant accreditation work directly related to the service of epidemic prevention and control, such as biosafety laboratory accreditation, establish an emergency green channel. Under the premise of ensuring compliance and ensuring quality, cooperate with the emergency needs of epidemic prevention and control, formulate an emergency recognition plan, Optimize the process, reduce the time limit, and give full play to the role of the prevention and control of epidemic situation of the recognition service.
3. Strengthen technical assistance
According to the development of the epidemic, organize research and adjust relevant accreditation policies in special periods, send notices to inspection and certification agencies in a timely manner, delay the on-site review time or adjust the review method, strengthen communication and coordination with relevant agencies, and guide relevant agencies to carry out during the epidemic prevention and control period jobs. Guide certification bodies to develop online certification services, optimize work processes, answer relevant questions in a timely manner, and strengthen technical services for resumption of production and production enterprises.
Four, free of charge
Exempt the accreditation application fee and accreditation assessment fee for the accredited conformity assessment agencies in Hubei region; exempt the 2020 accreditation annuity for accredited laboratories and inspection institutions in Hubei region; exempt related organizations in Hubei region The corresponding annuity recognized by the certification body in 2020.
On the other hand, "Circular 16" also provides some guidelines for the work of certification bodies during the epidemic, including:
1. The certification body is required to study and formulate an implementation plan for certification during the epidemic prevention and control period based on the relevant requirements of the General Administration of Market Supervision and CNAS accreditation requirements, combined with its own actual situation, and inform the client according to the requirements of the accreditation specifications;
2. On the premise of ensuring that the certification activities are compliant, effective, and meet the requirements for accreditation, the certification body can use appropriate methods to conduct audits according to its own conditions and the actual situation of the certification organization (such as the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to implement audits is a kind of Appropriate remote audit method), after the epidemic situation is lifted, the relevant results will be evaluated and confirmed or supplemented for on-site audit. The ICT audit should comply with the requirements of "Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Application in Audit" (CNAS-CC14:2019). IAF ID3: The 2011 document is mainly applicable to management system certification. During the outbreak, each certification body can refer to the implementation when carrying out certification of other systems than the management system;
3. The certification body shall provide a certified organization with a mature management system, full understanding and sufficient confidence to provide high-quality and convenient certification services under the premise of effective certification and controllable risks, and to support relevant organizations to smoothly survive the epidemic situation;
4. The certification body shall formulate corresponding regulations based on the specific conditions such as the degree of impact, the speed of the organization management system, product characteristics, production conditions, technical application scope and maturity, and the capabilities of the auditors and the local area. Review plan.
Under the guidance of the above work of CNAS, various certification bodies have also issued relevant work arrangement notices during the epidemic, and under the premise of combining network technical means, carry out risk-controllable but effective certification activities. For example, the CQC (China Quality Certification Center) issued "Notice on Related Business Work During the Prevention and Control of New Coronavirus Infection Pneumonia", and made four arrangements for CQC's certification business during the epidemic prevention and control [3]:
1. Start the emergency office, handle the certification business online, and encourage the application of the certification system and information submission through the online bidding system;
2. Open special green passages for related products used to fight against or alleviate the epidemic, and arrange for specialists to follow up. For customers in Hubei Province, while arranging the responsibility of the commissioner, the whole process of electronic and convenient operation is adopted;
3. Suspend the on-site inspection, and extend the rectification period to three months after the epidemic situation is lifted for enterprises that need rectification
4. Before the epidemic situation is lifted, the validity period of the certification certificate that needs to expire or need to be supervised and audited is extended to 3 months after the epidemic situation is cancelled. After 3 months.
During the epidemic, whether it is an accreditation body or a certification body, all kinds of flexible, convenient and humanized measures have been adopted. This is undoubtedly for those who are facing the expiration of the recognition/certification certificate, need to be reviewed, increase Or certification bodies/certified enterprises that have urgent issues such as changes to accreditation/certification contents have brought some warmth. Especially for certification bodies/certified enterprises directly related to epidemic prevention and control, they can all enjoy the green emergency green channel service, which meets the needs of domestic prevention and control.
In summary, the author feels that CNAS's determination of the force majeure of this epidemic is not a single level, but has a tendency to focus on regions. In the handling system, the review system has proposed a series of emergency measures in accordance with China's national conditions, and the corresponding On the basis of this guidance, the certification body has formulated a series of emergency measures, such as online declaration, written review, opening of green channels, and adaptive services for Hubei region, etc., all of which reflect the policy's adaptability to local conditions and time. . At the same time, the special policies during the above epidemic period are also closely related to the relevant documents of the IAF International Multilateral Treaty IAF ID3:2011, which reflects the attitude that should be a party. I also hope that this article can benefit more certification bodies and enterprises affected by the epidemic, make full use of special policies, and spread it in the international and domestic markets after the epidemic has passed.
Note to this article:
[1] Cited from the website of China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment, IAF Brochure Chinese, https://www.cnas.org.cn/gjhr/gjzz/iaf/images/2018/05/08/25A0F064CEE6EA4118CDEB96E8D86A91.pdf
[2] Cited from the website of the National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment of China, "The Role and Significance of Accreditation by Accreditation Bodies", https://www.cnas.org.cn/rzjgrk/rzjgrkdzyhyc/
[3] Cited from the website of the China Quality Certification Center, regarding the relevant business work during the prevention and control of new coronavirus infection pneumonia, https://www.cqc.com.cn/www/chinese/c/2020-02- 06/555834.shtml.
