Scope as a term is mentioned in various locations within management system standards and there is sometimes confusion as to what is a Scope of Certification.
At the opening meeting (during the stage 1 audit), we will seek to agree the “scope” for which you wish to be certificated. It should be concise (usually a one or two sentence) description of your business. It is your responsibility to propose the scope, although our Audit Team Leader will help if necessary.
The scope of the audit is a term used for defining what an audit is being performed for, this could be internal audits or external audits.
The scope of the management system is defining what the management system is addressing and each management system will require different requirements to be defined. Within ISO 9001 you need to define the boundaries of the management system such as locations the business operates etc.
Your scope of certification should be sufficiently and precisely drawn as to give a clear understanding of the types of products or services which you supply. You should not be certificated for the supply of products you do not make or for services you do not provide. You can not exclude something which you are doing as this could lead to ambiguity when organisations see that you are certified to a management system.
If there are regulatory requirements, standards or other normative documents against which you supply products or services, these should be included in your scope of the management system but not Certification.
The scope of certification cannot be changed during the audit apart from tweaks to wording. If you wish to make an amendment or include any additional processes then please notify the Auva Head office prior to the assessment taking place as additional time or different auditors may be required.
