Latest News & Opinion on the ISO Certification Scheme
Oxebridge Files Complaint Against BSI, Alleges Widespread ISO 17021 Violations
(Update: BSI has responded, click here.) Lima PERU -- Oxebridge Quality Resources International has filed a 15-page complaint against BSI's UK office, alleging widespread and systemic conflicts of interest in its ISO 9001 and related management system conformity...
ISO 9001 Certificates in China: How Fake Are They?
ISO has had to issue "corrected" numbers on national ISO 9001 totals for countries such as Russia, Ukraine and others; of the million + total certificates reported, over 100,000 were determined to be "fake" and as many as 50,000 - 75,000 more are suspect. And yet so...
Out of the Seldon Crisis: Asimov, Deming and AS9100
In Isaac Asimov's groundbreaking science fiction Foundation series of novels, the idea of the "Seldon Crisis" is introduced, named after the fictional character, Hari Seldon. In the far flung future, pure scientific application is able to accurately predict future...
Lufthansa Technik Awards AS9110 Contract to Oxebridge
Lufthansa Technik Philippines has awarded Oxebridge a contract for AS9110 services, to begin first quarter 2014. The aircraft repair services devision of Lufthansa operates three depots in the Philippines, at Pasay City, Mactan Cebu and Clark Pampanga. The company’s...
![ISO Grants Rare Award to Oxebridge VP Chris Paris [HUMOR]](https://www.oxebridge.com/emma/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/oxeaward1-400x250.jpg)
ISO Grants Rare Award to Oxebridge VP Chris Paris [HUMOR]
Not content with merely being voted the World's Most Awesome ISO 9001 Consultant in the World, I can now add "ISO Award Winning ISO 9001 Consultant" to my growing list of credentials. And this time I didn't even have to invent the award myself! Over at the...
Why Auditing “Active Orders” is Terrible Practice
As recently discussed, self-proclaimed ISO 9001 expert David Seear revealed his idea of a "process audit" is to merely select a handful of active orders, chosen during a pre-audit shop floor tour, and then audit those. Unfortunately this practice isn't something...
IRCA Trainer Says Audit Sampling is Based on “Available Time”
(UPDATED 12/17/2014 - see below) IRCA ISO 9010 Lead Assessor trainer, and self-published book author, David Seear has spent the better part of the last ten years (or more) pushing a concept he calls "Back to Basics." The collective thesis is tough to suss out, since...
Process Audits for ISO 9001 Made Blindingly Simple
So many are confused by process auditing, it's become a virus in the industry. Let's inoculate. A process audit shifts the focus from the product to the process, and examines each process' ability to produce a product that meets the requirements for that process. You...
Oxebridge Holds “Future of ISO 9001” Seminar in Lima Peru
Lima Peru -- Oxebridge Quality Resources International celebrated the official opening of its offices in Lima with a seminar at the Hilton Miraflores on "The Future of ISO 9001: Preparing for the Changes in ISO 9001:2015." The event was attended by industry experts...
Is This the Best Article on Risk Analysis Ever Written?
Could be. It's from Quality Digest's June 2011 release, but it remains a solid critique of current risk analysis methods, such as FMEA, which rely on arbitrary guesswork and bad math to make critical decisions. As I've said before, by applying numbers to guesses, we...
Did ISO Ignore Nigel Croft on 9001 Release Date?
In going through my old files on ISO 9001:2015, I came across a presentation given by ISO TC176 SC2 Chairman Nigel Croft at the 10th IRCA Forum in Japan, during June of 2011. There's a lot of interesting information in it, but one slide in particular stood out. For...
ISO Survey Data 22nd Cycle (2012) Now Available
ISO has released the 22nd edition of its annual ISO Survey, presenting data on the worldwide totals of various ISO standards, such as ISO 9001. The file may be downloaded for free. The link for the ISO Survey 2012 can be found at:...
Soft Grading: Still Alive and Well
Feedback from frustrated prime contractors and other stakeholders during the early 2000's led to a push against the practice by Certification Bodies (CBs) of "soft grading" nonconformities. This is where an auditor finds a nonconformity of a certain severity, but...
ISO / IAF Considering Universal ISO 9001 Registry of Certified Companies
ISO 9001 accreditation rules require that each certification body (CB) maintain a publicly-accessible registry of its certified clients. But with the large number of international CBs, and without any standardization for how the information is presented, users have...
Unaccredited Registrar Daryl Guberman Doesn’t Know What Product Certification Is
In a manifesto appearing on the site for his unaccredited ISO 9001 certificate mill G-PMC, owner Daryl Guberman accuses accredited registrars of violating rules he doesn't adhere to himself. Specifically, he calls out certification bodies, including DNV, for failing...
Oxebridge Defeats ISO Legal Move That Would Have “Threatened Entire Industry”
Tampa FL --- Oxebridge has successfully shut down a legal maneuver by lawyers representing the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) which would have made it illegal for any company, consultant, certification body or person to use the term "ISO 9001"...
Five Things Consultants Can Do to Fix ISO 9001’s Reputation
ANAB and the accreditation bodies are only one player in the ISO 9001 ecosystem. They, along with the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) are probably in the best position to do the most good in the shortest time, due to their power in the industry, but this...
Five Things ANAB Can Do Right Now to Fix ISO 9001’s Reputation
ISO 9001 in the US is on the decline, and there are many places to lay blame. The infrastructure surrounding ISO 9001 certification scheme is a complex organism, comprised of relationships between clients, consultants, auditors, certification bodies (CBs),...
“Value Added” Auditing May Be Illegal
Despite only being accredited for "conformity assessments," Conformity Assessment Bodies (see? it's in their name) nevertheless market their services as "value added auditing" in order to distinguish themselves from competitors. Of course nowadays nearly every...
ISO Data: Less Than 0.5% of Organizations Requested Risk Management Be Included in ISO 9001:2015
According to official ISO User Survey data, when asked whether risk management should be included in ISO 9001:2015, only 4,560 companies responded favorably. ISO commissioned a survey of current and potential ISO 9001 users in July 2009, in order to "better understand...
Oxebridge Launches Management Maturity Model (M3) Development Forum
Oxebridge has launched the first step in the development of the Management Maturity Model standards, or "M3" at the following URL: http://www.emthreedev.org The M3 Development project, formerly called "ALT 9001", will attempt to use modern technology to crowdsource...
Pulse Medical: Using ISO 9001 for Real World Improvements
I am watching Barb Boyce "torture" her employees. It's a word she uses often, but whenever she says it, her employees smile. It's not torture, of course; instead it means they will be quizzed on their manufacturing processes by the President of the company herself....
How Registrars Can Survive Under ISO 9001:2015
ISO 9001:2015, based on the Committee Draft (which is unlikely to change at all before it becomes a final standard), takes the vague "New Age" language of 9001:2000 and does the impossible: it makes it MORE vague. Defended as "removing prescription," the requirements...
Did DNV Just “Seriously Infringe” ISO’s Copyright?
ISO has elected to pursue some parties with legal action for trademark and copyright infringement over publication of the ISO 9001:2015 Committee Draft. Oxebridge maintains that effort is selective on ISO's part, but ISO strongly disagrees. If ISO's stand is correct,...
Six Sense Auditing: How Your Eyeballs Fail You During Audits
Vision is great. It helps us to drive our cars, choose our mates, and accurately spear a woolly mammoth for dinner; often in that order, if your date goes well. But when it comes to conducting audits, our eyeballs let us down. They lead us down the wrong path, and...
How on Earth Did “Human Factors” Get Slipped into ISO 9001:2015?
For all the evidence that TC 176 ignored the aerospace industry, one odd requirement seems to have snuck in, seemingly through aerospace intervention. You can't tell because the requirement isn't named as such, but it's the "Human Factors" requirement from AS9110, the...
Video: Review of ISO 9001:2015’s Process Approach Requirements
In this video shot in a hotel room kitchen (because my next video is how to make foie gras and grilled asparagus in truffle oil), I talk about the problems in the ISO 9001:2015's Committee Draft specific to the process approach. Click the video above for the...
Oxebridge Launches Seminars for Certification Bodies
Oxebridge founder and VP Operations Christopher Paris is launching a series of seminars targeted at Certification Bodies, in order to help them improve and maintain their customer base during an era of dwindling interest in QMS certification. Ignore Those Surveys: Top...
IAQG Presentation on the Future of AS9100
The International Aerospace Quality Group has released a presentation on future developments for AS9100, including how the upcoming revision to ISO 9001 will affect the aerospace standard. You may download the presentation here. (PDF - 639 kb - English)
ISO 9001:2015 Committee Draft Available
ISO has released the Committee Draft (CD) of ISO 9001:2015 for voting and comment by its member nations. Document no longer available. Please direct any feedback on the content of the CD to your nation's member body within ISO TC 176.
Official ISO Documents Contradict TC 176 Statement re: Quality Management Principles
In his response to the Public Call for Temporary Cessation of Development of ISO 9001:2015, TC 176 Chair Dr. Gary Cort challenged the point that the new ISO 9001 revision is being developed without the Quality Management Principles finalized. The QMPs are supposed to...
Has TC 176 Violated its Own Procedures on 9001 Development?
From Charles Corrie to Roger Frost to numerous TC 176 reps, right up to TC 176 Chair Dr. Gary Cort, the talking point is that ISO must follow its established procedures when developing international standards. Using this mantra, they avoid being confronted with...
Chris Paris Addresses TC 176 Argument Against ISO 9001:2015 Pause (UPDATED)
I don't want to belabor the debate beyond its usefulness, and I maintain that my Public Call for Temporary Cessation in the Development of ISO 9001:2015 remains valid as-is, but ISO TC 176 Chair Dr. Gary Cort has taken the time to distribute a response, and some of...
TC 176 Chair Gary Cort Responds to Oxebridge “Public Call”
TC 176 Chair Dr. Gary Cort has issued a formal response to Oxebridge's public call for a temporary halt in the development of ISO 9001:2015, to give time to consider the views of key industries and stakeholders. Dr. Cort's response is reprinted in its entirety here,...
The One-Question Survey ISO Needs to Run Right Now
The gripe against surveys from both survey recipients and survey developers is that length is the joy-killer. No one likes answering 50 questions, and companies don't like making them either. So well-known is the problem, that online surveys regularly include an...
