As mentioned earlier, ANAB CEO John Knappenberger is heading to Orlando to give a speech at an event on ISO 9001 and risk hosted by one of its accredited certification bodies (CBs), SGS North America. My blog post yesterday was more snark than substance, and I have since taken a second look at the situation and found it needs a bit more serious teardown.
Yes, it’s disappointing that ANAB would jump into the “quality=risk” reboot of an entire profession, but the bigger problem is that as soon as Knappenberger steps onto the stage, he reveals to the entire world just how much ANAB has abdicated its responsibilities, abandoned its mission, and proven it’s just the cowering lapdog of its CB “customers.”
For one, SGS is paying for the stage. That immediately injects a financial and legal entanglement that ANAB should — above all — be seeking to avoid. It dilutes anyone’s reasonable expectation of objectivity and fairness if ANAB takes the financial favors of one of its clients, without doing the exact same thing for every single other CB it accredits, else it be seen as playing favorites.
So, good news, AMTec, PRG or other CB no one ever heard of: you can probably get Randy Dougherty to make balloon animals at your kid’s next birthday party.
Since that’s not gonna happen, the overt favoritism also raises a valid question as to how anyone could ever expect ANAB to hold SGS accountable to accreditation rules if they are “partners” in these kinds of marketing events. Of course we already know ANAB has given SGS a free pass in the past, so perhaps this explains the power that SGS’ Zach Pivarnik seemed to hold over ANAB.
The ANAB-SGS lovefest may also be an overt violation of ISO 17011, under which ANAB alleges to operate. That standard demands that ANAB’s activities “do not compromise the confidentiality, objectivity and impartiality of its accreditations.” So this favoritism — helping SGS in its marketing efforts, while not offering the same to other ANAB CBs — not only violates the spirit of 17011, it may violate the letter.
Certainly this appears true when looking at the introductory information in 17011, which summarizes nicely the entire purpose of ANAB’s (and all other AB’s) existence:
It is important for the purchaser, regulator and the public to know that these [CBs] are competent to perform their tasks. For that reason there is an increasing demand for impartial verification of their competence. Such verification is done by authoritative accreditation bodies that are impartial in relation to both the [CBs] and their clients….
So by jumping into the loving arms of SGS, ANAB creates an instant mess, and the minute Knappenberger walks on the stage he announces his deep conflict of interest for the world to see, and pulls the curtain away from the Oz-like quid pro quo machine. This is the legacy of the Bob King era, when he ran ANAB’s predecessor, RAB, and likewise prioritized the “market” of certifications over the validity of them. King, who was wrong more than he was right, just handed an infected scheme over to Knappenberger, who apparently lacks the vision, moral compassing and self-awareness to know that he could have fixed ANAB’s tarnished reputation, rather than trashing it further with these clumsy, ill-conceived stunts.
If I were one of ANAB’s other CBs, I’d be pissed.
Remember, you can voice your displeasure about this to Mr. Knappenberger in person, by attending the event. It appears to be free, if you can make it to Orlando.
Christopher Paris is the founder and VP Operations of Oxebridge. He has over 35 years’ experience implementing ISO 9001 and AS9100 systems, and helps establish certification and accreditation bodies with the ISO 17000 series. He is a vocal advocate for the development and use of standards from the point of view of actual users. He is the writer and artist of THE AUDITOR comic strip, and is currently writing the DR. CUBA pulp novel series. Visit www.drcuba.world
