SEASONS GREETINGS! ASR s Partnership Paper

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1 Volume 6, Issue 2 SEASONS GREETINGS! We wish to extend our warm and sincere appreciation for your continued registration business and to express our gratitude for all your references and referrals! Do not forget to let us know if you have made a referral as ASR credits your next invoice for all contracts received that come from your referrals! SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST: > Standards Update and Reminders > Training > ASR & IAAR Websites Your Partner in Achieving Business Excellence! 5281 Clyde Park Ave. SW, Suite 1 Wyoming, MI Toll Free: Fax: was another year of challenges and growth at ASR! Does anything ever stay the same in the standards world! ASR has been in business for over 12 years, but it seems like just yesterday all we had to think about were ISO 9001, QS-9000 and perhaps a bit of ISO in the mix! Today we have AS9100, ISO 13485, ISO/TS 16949, ISO etc all with their own unique set of rules and regulations. In 2010 ASR added a New Business Development Manager and an Administrative Assistant to our office team. Many new auditors were qualified here in North America and internationally. We expanded our worldwide presence into India and Korea. Today we have over 1500 certificates worldwide. ASR is now auditing for ISO (Medical Devices) and we were the first ANAB Accredited Registrar to transition to the Aerospace, AS9100:2009 standard! In September we added in-house training to our list of services and increased our efforts on TS public training. Our customer retention rate remains at 98% with our overall auditor and office satisfaction data averaging a on a scale of 1-6 (6 indicating outstanding). Satisfaction data from our technical standards such as AS9100 and ISO/TS tends to run a bit lower at Please remember these standards have many more requirements and rules (which we didn t create). The auditors are required to pass additional tests and witness audits in order to audit to these standards. At times they may not agree with a requirement but they must set aside their personal beliefs and audit to the standard. If you have technical or general questions, are looking for a reference or want to discuss a finding or requirement, we are here for you! We enjoy having the opportunity to stay connected! ASR is where it is today because our customers continue to challenge us and push us for business improvement! It really does work both ways! Wishing you Peace, Joy and Prosperity in the coming year! Warm Regards, Richelle Kinzie President

2 Page 2 AS9100 STANDARDS UPDATE AND REMINDERS The AS9100 standard is governed by the IAQG and SAE and is currently going through a transition from AS9100B to AS9100:2009 (revision C). The standard and audit checklist (SAE 9101D) have been approved and are auditable. ASR has been approved by ANAB to audit to AS9100:2009 and our auditors are working through the upgrade process with additional training and examinations. However, there is one piece of the AS9100 puzzle that has not yet been approved and that is the document that governs ASR and all other certification bodies. The SAE9104 is still in review and will likely not be approved until early to middle This means that all audits ASR conducts to AS9100:2009 are being quoted using the existing rules for AS9100B. There is a Supplemental Rule that has been released by IAQG which provides guidance on upgrade audits and ASR will be utilizing this document until such time as the SAE9104 is approved or a new Supplemental Rule is released. All audits conducted after July 1, 2011 will be done to AS9100:2009 and ASR will notify you of the revised audit duration and cost for upgrade. If your audit is due before July 1, 2011 you can choose to conduct to AS9100B or AS9100:2009. It is ASR s recommendation that if you are due for your last surveillance audit prior to July 1, 2011 to conduct that audit to AS9100B and then upgrade at recertification in We sent out a detailed on this transition a few months ago and if you have specific questions on your audit cycle, when to upgrade or what the upgrade cost will be, please give our office a call to discuss. ISO ASR gained ANAB accreditation to ISO 13485:2003 in early 2010 and we hope to work with our current clients who may be exploring certification to this standard. We have certified a number or new and existing clients already and have received many more inquires from clients on upgrading or adding to their existing Quality Management Systems. ISO is nearly 100% inclusive of ISO 9001 and clients can either certify to just ISO (medical customers only) or achieve a joint certification to both ISO and ISO 9001.

3 Page 3 STANDARDS UPDATE AND REMINDERS ISO/TS So far 2010 has been a year of resurgence for the automotive industry and ISO/TS registration. We are seeing renewed growth from our existing customers in the automotive industry along with many requests for transferring or new registrations. ASR would like to remind all customers again on the importance of audit planning and making sure that our auditors have all the required/requested information sent to them in advance of each audit. The IAOB issued FAQ #3 in 2009 to require certification bodies to add additional audit time before the opening meeting of an audit to address audit planning in circumstances where the required items are not provided in advance. This extra audit time is in addition to the required audit time from the TS Rules and the client will be billed for this extra time. IAOB witness audits of all certification bodies continue to find that audit planning is not being done correctly per the TS Rules and FAQ #3. FOREIGN OFFICES ASR is pleased to announce that we began operations in India during This emerging market is growing rapidly and was a logical choice for international expansion under the guidance and management of ASR-Asia. Many of you may not realize that ASR operates around the world providing registration services in countries such as Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Taiwan, China, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and India. We have the capability to serve any foreign office operations that you may currently operate. Let us know if you would like to discuss utilizing ASR s services around the world with local ASR auditors.

4 Page 4 TRAINING Excellence is an art won by training and habituation, as quoted by Aristotle. As organization s improvement efforts continue and initiatives are developed for 2011, additional training needs my be identified. ASR is pleased to announce a further expansion of its services to include training workshops (onsite and public) in order to be a greater resource. Our training portfolio for each standard ranges from overview, implementation, internal auditing, integrated auditing to lead auditor. One of the greatest benefits is onsite workshops can be designed to address general to specific learning objectives and training goals based on the most popular management systems and process improvement methodologies. A reason for the high diversity of workshops is because our trainers possess an exceptional degree of expertise. They can effectively speak to service, as well as manufacturing based audiences. Trainer Credibility: Auditors themselves with industry know-how Average of 22 years in their respective field of work 98.5 attendee satisfaction Contact ASR for further details on how to propel your company s competiveness through training. Training is aligned to the following international standards: ISO9001/Quality ISO14001/Environmental ISO/TS16949/Automotive AS9100/Aerospace ISO13485/Medical OHSAS18001/Occupational Health & Safety ISO17025/Laboratory Accreditation Additional specialty programs also exist: ISO 14971/Risk Management 21 CFR 820 FDA Root Cause Analysis Lean Principles (Manufacturing and Service) Auditing Fundamentals Auditing Refresher Special Process Assessments

5 Page 5 IAAR, the Independent Association of Accredited Registrars, has upgraded and revamped its website. The site includes sections on Industry News, Certification Benefits, Registrars, Industry Solutions, and Certified Suppliers. You now have the ability to search for The IAAR and ASR are looking for volunteers. Your Partners at ASR: Richelle Kinzie President Richelle@asrworldwide.com David Gawlak Vice President of Sales & Marketing Dave@asrworldwide.com Tom Droog Technical Operations Manager Tom@asrworldwide.com Brad Bukowski, Registration Manager Brad@asrworldwide.com Warren Hojnacki Business Development Manager Warren@asrworldwide.com ASR AND THE IAAR WEBSITE certified companies on line and at no cost. In addition, the site contains articles about the benefits of certification and accreditation. You will also find an article from the Harvard Business School evaluating the effectiveness of ISO certification. Please visit for more information. One way to promote certification is through our customer and the improved performances you may have measured. The IAAR and ASR are looking for volunteers to help in collecting and putting together case studies. The focus will be on ISO 9001 and the impact it has had on your Ruthann Schultz Customer Service Manager Ruthann@asrworldwide.com Cynthia Redick Administrative Assistant Cynthia@asrworldwide.com Renae Bennett Controller Renae@asrworldwide.com Jessica De Vries Administrative Support Jessica@asrworldwide.com business. The case study must be in the form of a testimonial or a white paper. If you have any questions or would like to participate please contact Dave Gawlak at ASR. dave@asrworldwide.com Your Partner in Achieving Business Excellence American Systems Registrar 5281 Clyde Park Ave, SW, Suite 1 Wyoming, MI Toll Free: 888/ Fax: 616/