01 · the-extra-name — The audit plan · There is an extra name on the plan
on screen: compare
Your audit plan arrives with an extra name on it. That person is an assessor from our accreditation body, and they are here to assess us. Your audit team audits your management system, and raises findings against it. The assessor watches the audit team, and raises findings against ours.
02 · live-work — Why on your site · Accreditation is assessed on live work
on screen: statement
An accreditation body cannot assess us from our procedures alone. Our documents say what we intend to do. Watching a real audit shows what our auditors do with a thin answer, a missing record, or a shift that was not running on the day.
03 · Who-is-assessed · The assessor is reading our auditor
on screen: panels
The assessor reads our auditor against the standard we are accredited to. Whether the audit followed the plan we issued you. How evidence was sampled, and whether each finding is supported by what was seen. Your part is smaller than it looks. You give the audit team the access you already agreed to. The questions still come from our auditor, and so do your findings.
04 · the-cycle — How accreditation runs · Where a witness sits in the cycle
on screen: track
A witness sits inside a cycle that runs on us. Our accreditation was granted against the international standard for certification bodies. It is assessed again at intervals, and that assessment reads our records and our audit files. Then the assessors ask to watch one of those audits happen.
05 · which-audits — Which audits · Why yours was the one chosen
on screen: list
Clients ask why their audit was the one picked. The assessors work across the scope they accredit us for. That means each of the three standards on it. It means the economic sectors named in the scope document. It means different points in the cycle, from a stage two to a recertification. And it means different auditors, because competence is assessed person by person.
06 ·before-the-day — Before the day · You are told who is coming, and asked
on screen: list
You are told before it happens, and the assessor is named in the audit plan alongside the team. Access to your site is yours to give, so we ask you to agree to it first. The assessor is bound by the same confidentiality we are. And if you would rather not host one, say so, and it is arranged at another audit.
07 · expectations — What people expect · Three things a witness is taken for
on screen: strike
Three expectations come up every time. The audit that runs is the one in your plan, with the duration we already derived from your questionnaire. The questions still come from our audit team, on the processes the plan named. And every finding the assessor writes is written about us.
08 · site-access — What goes wrong · The gate, and the hours lost at it
on screen: compare
What actually goes wrong here is logistical. An assessor needs the same site access your audit team needs. On a live works or a plant, that means an induction, a permit and the right protective equipment, arranged with the same notice. Left to the morning, the audit loses hours at the gate. Tell us who to send the details to when the plan is issued.
09 · findings-on-us — If something is found · A finding from a witness is ours to answer
on screen: cycle
What the assessor writes is a finding about us.
10 · what-accredited-means — What it is for
on screen: statement
This is the part that reaches your certificate. Accreditation is maintained by assessment, and some of that assessment happens on a client's site. An assessor from outside has sat in on audits like yours, and read how we did them. When a tender asks for accredited certification, that is the machinery behind the word.
11 · who-accredits-us — Who assesses us · The two bodies that accredit us
on screen: cards
Two bodies accredit us, and both assess us this way. E I A C, the national accreditation body of the U A E, has accredited us since two thousand and seventeen. A N A B, in the United States, since two thousand and eighteen. I A F is the arrangement through which the two recognize each other. Both accreditations cover the same three standards, and nothing else.
12 · close
on screen: statement
Your audit is audited too. An assessor from the body that accredits us watches how our team works, on a live site, and writes up what they see about us. That is what sits behind the word accredited on your certificate.