Agilent | Conformity Assessment

The terms certification, registration and accreditation are often used interchangeably in relation to independent assessment of a quality system, product compliance with a standard, or servicing competence. Approval is also incorrectly used. Peter Unger of A2LA has kindly provided the following clarification of the correct word that should be used for each aspect of "conformance".

Definitions

The process of determining whether products, processes, systems or people meet specified requirements has been given the name, conformity assessment. ISO's Committee on Conformity Assessment (CASCO) provides several ISO guides on the subject. The tools of conformity assessment are listed in the order of their emergence in Table 1 with an asterisk to indicate usage by first parties (suppliers), second parties (customers, regulators, or others who demand compliance with requirements) and third parties (bodies independent from both suppliers and their customers).

Table 1-- The "tools" of conformity assessment and who uses them.
	First Party	Second Party	Third Party
Manufacturer's declaration	*
Inspection	*	*	*
Testing	*	*	*
Auditing	*	*	*
Certification			*

Manufacturer's declaration of conformity

Commonly called self-certification it is, according to the definition under ISO/IEC Guide 2, what a supplier (first party) does in giving written assurance that its product meets specified requirements (e.g. a standard specification for the product). It is the earliest and most common form of conformity assessment and may be supplemented by the other forms of conformity assessment: typically inspection and/or testing (including calibration) of the product, auditing of related product production systems and processes, and more recently, certification (or registration) of the supplier's quality system. ISO/IEC Guide 22 covers manufacturer's declaration of conformity principles.

Certification

This is defined in Guide 2 as a procedure by which a third party gives written assurance that a product, process, or service conforms to specified requirements.

Inspection, testing and auditing are tools used by first, second or third parties.

ISO CASCO has issued several guides related to inspection bodies (Guide 39 and 57), testing (and calibration) laboratories (Guide 25), and certification bodies (Guides 62 and 65).

With the growing use of these conformity assessment tools has come the need to assure the competence of the conformity assessment bodies in order to enhance confidence in the results of conformity assessment processes. Thus, we have accreditation.

Accreditation

This is defined in Guide 2 as a procedure by which an authoritative body gives formal recognition that a body or person is competent to carry out specific tasks.

Accreditation of laboratories is perhaps the oldest and most widespread type of conformity assessment accreditation. Requirements for laboratory accreditation bodies are addressed in Guide 58. More recently, accreditation bodies for certification bodies (both product certifiers as well as management system registrars) is covered by Guide 61. At the moment (August 1998) there is no ISO/IEC Guide for those providing accreditation of inspection bodies; one is currently being drafted based on a combination of Guides 58 and 61. The European cooperation for Accreditation (EA) has recently issued a document on this subject, EAC/EAL-G28, EAC-EAL General Requirements for Bodies Providing Accreditation of Inspection Bodies.

Further Advice

In a similar vein, the ISO also has something to say about these often interchanged words in their Magical Demystifying Tour article.