[UPDATED] ANAB Accredited BSI for ISO 9001:2015 Only Days After FDIS Release

UPDATE: See below.

In July, the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) granted accreditation to international registrar BSI for the issuance of ISO 9001:2015 certificates, despite the FDIS version of the ISO 9001 standard having only been released days before. The push allowed BSI to make the claim of being the “first” ISO 9001 certification body (CB) to achieve the accreditation.

In a press release dated July 24 2015, BSI Strategic Delivery Director Pietro Foschi said:

Being the first Certification Body to attain accreditation is a testament to the investment we have made in training our auditors and allows BSI to help our clients transition to the new standard, thereby embedding the latest best practice into their organizations and enabling them to take advantage of the additional benefits as early as possible.

Oxebridge has raised questions as to the validity of the ANAB accreditation, given that the FDIS version of the standard was released on July 9th, only 15 days prior to the press release. Based on the comments by Mr. Foschi, either BSI trained its entire international auditor pool in only 15 days, or trained their pool to the previous DIS version of the standard instead.

It is not clear how ANAB could have accredited BSI under either scenario. The most likely explanation is that ANAB did not assess the auditor training itself, but merely ascertained if BSI had a plan in place to conduct future training. While this would probably pass muster under ANAB rules, it would contradict Mr. Foschi’s statement which implies the training has already occurred.

The timing creates more problems for both ANAB and BSI. Given that BSI would have had to undergo an audit by ANAB, resolved any findings and wait for ANAB to process the final accreditation, it is unlikely that the entire process took less than 15 days. It is more likely that the ANAB process was underway long before the FDIS was even released.

Oxebridge has argued that the future of ISO 9001 is at risk due, in large part, to poor training by CB auditors. and lax oversight by accreditation bodies like ANAB who receive their revenue from CBs.

Oxebridge has contacted both BSI and ANAB for comment.

UPDATE 26 August 2015: A keen-eyed LinkedIn guest noticed that while the date of the press release is July 24th, the URL for the press release page indicates “August” and other news outlets received the release only a few days ago, not back in July. This means either the press release was dated wrong, and BSI actually received its accreditation in August, or the press release was written in July but merely broadcast (via PRNewswire) this past week.  Once we get confirmation we will update this article accordingly.

It’s not much of a difference. Even if BSI received it’s accreditation in August, it still does not appear to be sufficient enough time to train its entire auditor pool to the new standard, which technically hasn’t even been finalized yet. — Chris Paris

UPDATE 2: Anonymous tipster “The Engineer” sent inside word that BSI actually dropped UKAS accreditation for most of its operations after UKAS was pressuring them to improve auditor competency. Rather than fix the problems, BSI allegedly “shopped around” for a more accommodating Accreditation Body, and found love in the caring caress of John Knappenberger’s ANAB, where accreditation is granted to anyone who can blink both eyes at the same time. For now treat this as unconfirmed internet rumor, but I’m doing more research on this and it may blow up into a story on its own. Stay tuned. — Chris Paris