The AS9100 certification body IAPMO Systems Certification Body (SCB) has now taken 35 days to provide an update on a complaint in the ProShop ERP scandal, whereas it took only a few hours to erase evidence supporting the complaint.
As reported last month, during a public promotional webinar for the QMS platform ProShop ERP, two ProShop clients revealed information that suggested their AS9100 certificates were issued by SCB in violation of official AS9100 certification rules. One client revealed that SCB performed a 4-hour AS9100 Stage 2 audit, despite charging the client for a full 2-day audit as required by minimum audit day rules. The second client revealed that SCB performed Stage 1 and Stage 2 audits for AS9100 back-to-back, and then allowed their auditor, Don Tate, to appear in a video promoting ProShop ERP. This latter issue appears to violate rules against CBs marketing any specific QMS consultancy.
Oxebridge filed a complaint with SCB on April 17. Six hours later, SCB representative Michael Madewell promised an update in “a few days.”
However, a representative with ProShop reported to Oxebridge that SCB had contacted them to remove the webinar from the internet within just a few hours of receiving the Oxebridge complaint, and before it acknowledged the formal complaint as required by ISO 17021-1 and AS9104. ProShop told SCB that it did not own the webinar, which instead was the property of Modern Machine Shop. SCB then pressured that company to remove the video, and on 18 April, Modern Machine Shop relented.
Oxebridge has retained a copy of the video for evidence, however.
SCB’s slow-walking of the complaint appears to violate its own official procedure for handling complaints, SCB document # RS-1701.
Now, over a month later and despite Madewell’s claim, SCB has fallen silent and has not provided any updates or evidence that actions were taken in the matter. As of 22 May, both companies — Novo Modo and TAKT Machining — both still hold AS9100 certification, per the official IAQG OASIS database. Don Tate remains a certified lead auditor in good standing per Probitas.
The delay by SCB is in contrast to the work done by the CB to have video evidence of the webinar removed from the internet.
ANAB and IAQG have been kept informed of the scandal at every stage, but have also refused to comment or take action.
The controversy arose when ProShop announced it would hold a webinar discussing how one of its clients — Novo Modo — achieved AS9100 certification after only “two weeks” of AS9100 implementation time. It was later revealed that this was achieved largely due to SCB’s lax auditing and that Novo Modo had “shut down operations” for that period to solely work on AS9100. A source later reported that SCB only audited a single job during its assessment of Novo Modo, raising additional questions about SCB’s audit sampling practices.
IAPMO SCP remains fully accredited and continues to perform AS9100 audits, despite the controversy.
Conflicts of interest remain rampant and unpunished in the ISO 9001 and AS9100 certification schemes. Earlier this week. Oxebridge filed a complaint against the accreditation body ANAB for co-hosting marketing events in which ANAB appears to promote the QMS consulting platform Ideagen. In 2023, Oxebridge filed a complaint against the German accreditation body DAkkS for refusing to stop TUV NORD from openly operating a QMS consulting company through its Middle East office. In that case, DAkkS closed the complaint without action, and TUV NORD continues to certify its own consulting clients in that region, in violation of ISO 17021-1.
