# Are "ISO-9000" Auditing Copanies THEMSELVES Certified?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-iso-9000-auditing-copanies-themselves-certified/214842
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 23, 2003, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-iso-9000-auditing-copanies-themselves-certified/214842 "2003-11-23T15:39:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-iso-9000-auditing-copanies-themselves-certified/214842/1 "2003-11-23T15:39:07Z")
I have been through three (3) ISO-9000 certifications…and they are NOT fun. I was so pissed off at the last (idiotic) auditor I dealt with that I asked him: “Who the hell gave YOu your ISO certification”?
Which brings upthe question: Who audits the auditors? Can one challenge the legitimnacy of an ISO certification?
Finally, when the whold damn world is “ISO Complient”-what are these auditing outfits going to do?
---
### Author:  [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2003, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-iso-9000-auditing-copanies-themselves-certified/214842/2 "2003-11-23T17:00:27Z")
Companies certifying ISO 9000 compliance usually are accredited with a national standards/industrial organization/government department; just ask your auditor who their company is accredited with.
ISO auditors certainly won’t be out of work in the foreseeable future. First, ISO certification needs to be recertified after a few years, and there are always new companies entering the markets. Second, there are environmental management systems and IT risk management systems to be certified, and industry-specific quality standards to be implemented which often exceed ISO 9000 requirements, e.g. for automobile industry suppliers.
---
### Author:  [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2003, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-iso-9000-auditing-copanies-themselves-certified/214842/3 "2003-11-24T05:47:38Z")
First of all, ISO 9000 registrars are accredited by the Registrar Accreditation Board, an independent organization founded by the American Society for Quality Control (now the American Society for Quality).
There is no such thing as ISO 9000 certification – no organization would accept the responsibilty of certifying such a broad variety of companies in anything. ISO 9000 registrars simply assess the company’s quality system for compliance with the appropriate ISO standard, and audit the company’s compliance with its quality system. The company is then registered. Never is it implied that the company’s products are any good, only that systems are in place that should make everything meet specs.
There is also no such thing as ISO 9000 registration. The ISO 9000 series contains standards of varying completeness, from ISO 9003’s “inspection/testing-only” to the comprehensive ISO 9001, which covers everything from design controls to customer service (the ISO 9000 standards were revised in 2000, and I’m not familiar with the new text – the scale and nomenclature of the various standards may have changed).
---
### Author:  [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2003, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-iso-9000-auditing-copanies-themselves-certified/214842/4 "2003-11-24T05:50:06Z")
Er, those answers, of course, only apply to the U.S. – I have no idea where **ralph124c** lives, but neither ASQ nor RAB has anything to do with accreditation in Germany.