About
Absolute Quality Certification (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
Profile
AQC GLOBAL LLC is established as an independent certification with its main objective to safeguard life, property and environment through quality assurance and total quality management.
AQC GLOBAL LLC has been providing their value added certification services to the Government, Public and Private Sector Organizations involved in various areas/activities. It is a professional organization backed by devoted, highly qualified and experienced personnel. We provide a wide spectrum of customer oriented certification services in an efficient and cost effective manner.
AQC shall create an environment where each employee contributes to all aspects of our business process and shall strive for continuous improvement to meet with customer Satisfaction by having a strong feedback system from clients, auditors and certification staff.
AQC ensures that its services are available to all its clients and these services are not based on undue financial or any other consideration. AQC ensures that all its procedures /guidelines operate in a non discriminatory manner etc.
AQC is having its Head Office at Sharjah, the State of UAE with the global presence in India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal, Bangladesh, Albania, Armenia, UAE, UK, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
AQS has earned a reputation over a period of time for being fair, firm, uniform, customer oriented and value added audit activities.
We at AQC replacing rigid and costly auditing services with value added auditing for
- QMS: ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management Systems)
- EMS: ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental Management Systems)
- OHSMS: ISO 45001:2018 (Occupational Health and Safety Management System)
- FSMS: ISO 22000:2018 (Food Safety Management System)
- ISMS: ISO 27001:2022 (Information Security Management Systems)
- ITSMS: ISO 20000-1:2018 (Information Technology Service Management Systems)
- MDQMS: ISO 13485:2016 (Medical Device Quality Management Systems)
- EnMS: ISO 50001:2018 (Energy Management System)
Our Mission
To ensure the enhancement and continual improvement in the operational and quality efficiency through the value added, competitive, result oriented auditing practices to achieve international recognition for excellence of Management System Certification.
ISO Certification Accreditation
- QMS: ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management Systems)
- EMS: ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental Management Systems)
- OHSMS: ISO 45001:2018 (Occupational Health and Safety Management System)
- FSMS: ISO 22000:2018 (Food Safety Management System)
- ISMS: ISO 27001:2022 (Information Security Management Systems)
- ITSMS: ISO 20000-1:2018 (Information Technology Service Management Systems)
- MDQMS: ISO 13485:2016 (Medical Device Quality Management Systems)
- EnMS: ISO 50001:2018 (Energy Management System)
AQC Quality Policy laid down by its top Management is as under
AQC GLOBAL LLC is committed to provide an independent, impartial and competent management system certification of Quality, Environmental, Food Safety & Occupational Health & Safety Management System, Information Security Management System, Information Technology Management System, MDQMS , FSSC, EnMS and other standards as required to all its clients in a manner that is most competitive and adds value to its client’s products and services to the ultimate customer’s satisfaction and the Accreditation Board requirements. AQC shall create an environment where each employee contributes to all aspects of our business process and shall strive for continual improvement to meet with customer Satisfaction by having a strong feedback system from clients, auditors and certification staff.
Quality will be the focus of all activities and shall strive towards meeting and exceeding customer expectations and achieve continual improvement by setting quality objectives in all spheres of activities.
AQC ensures that it understand the Importance of Impartiality in carrying out its Management System Certification Activities, Manage conflict of Interest and ensure the objectivity of its management system certification activities.
Impartiality Policy
Impartiality Policy of the AQC define that Top Management of AQC understands the importance of impartiality in carrying out its management system certification activities, manages conflict of interest and ensures the objectivity of its management system certification activities.
AQC having the Impartiality policy as
1. AQC (including its staff, auditors, subcontractors and Franchisee Partners) shall not participate in the designing, implementation or maintenance (including Internal Audit) of the management systems of its Certification customers and shall not have been engaged in such activities in the two years prior to the client’s receipt of AQC Certification services.
2. AQC embark on responsibility to inculcate confidence in the delivery of its Certification services to customers and parties that have an interest in Certification. This shall be achieved by upholding the principles of impartiality (including taking action against threats, i.e. from self-interest, self-review, familiarity, intimidation), competence, responsibility, openness, confidentiality and responsiveness to complaints.
3. In the management of impartiality, AQC recognises the possibilities for conflicts of interests arising from relationships of those persons or organisations having an interface with AQC. This includes staff, sub- contractors and agents. AQC undertakes to complete a thorough assessment of the risks and the residual risks to impartiality and to determine the action to be taken to eliminate or minimise those risks. The risk assessment process will be on-going and will be maintained over all operations, services of AQC and associated Management Review process.
4. AQC Certifications is committed to provide and maintain a high quality, professional and impartial serviceas agreed for certifying clients’ management systems which meets the requirements of all the relevant international, national and or other standards and or regulation normative documents and specifications as required by the accreditation authorities.
5. The top management of AQC has the ultimate authority and responsibility to ensure the effective operation of AQC management system by ensuring the appropriate resources are available and deployed.
6. All personnel involved in the Certification operations are committed to understanding this policy, complying with the principles and documentation and maintaining continued competence.
ISO Certification Process
The Certification process shall consist of the following key stages
1. Application
2. Application/Contract Review
3. Initial Certification Audit (stage-1 audit),
4. Assessment (stage-2 audit) and
5. Continual assessment (surveillance audit).
6. Recertfication.
1. Application :
Enquiries may be received in several forms, by telephone, letter, e-mail or facsimile or online as available on the website under the Tab Application. In case client need the physical copy of the application form then cliet can write us on info@aqcworld.com and demand a copy of an application.
2. Application Review :
After getting the complete application the Certification Manager will send the application to application review and after application review a work order shall be sent to client including the copy of lclient agreement.
3. Initial Certification Audit (Stage I & Stage II) :
A. Stage 1 audit
AQC shall proceed with Initial Certification Audit (Stage-1) audit activity on completion of earlier activities.. A pre-assessment is a trial audit which is conducted before the Certification audit at client's option to provide a macro level assessment of the status of implementation and identification of any major deficiencies in the compliance of the documented quality system with the requirements of the certification standards, for corrective actions to be taken in advance of the certification audit. It provides valuable inputs to give confidence to the clients and saves time for taking necessary corrective action, later. However pre-assessment is done in special cases and it is also ensured that the auditor signs the conflict of interest before every visit.
A detailed report shall be prepared by the Team Leader and a copy shall be given to the client. The report shall be evaluated by AM and plan for the subsequent audits of the organization is discussed with the client.
B. Stage 2 audit
The purpose of the Assessment (STAGE-2) is to ensure that the requirements of relevant ISO standards as addressed by the documented quality system are being complied with. The Auditors will be looking for objective evidence of compliance with the standards, and Non compliances are brought to the attention of the guide and noted on a report form. At the end of assessment, these are discussed and the company's management representative is asked to sign the report acknowledging that he understands and accepts the findings.
The Assessment is concluded with a “Closing Meeting” at which the Team Leader presents the findings and makes a recommendations, either for certification to the applicable standards of ISO otherwise with a requirement for a verification audit in case of major non-conformances having been identified. 2.5.3 In case where non-compliances are of a minor nature, certification is recommended subject to a corrective action plan that addresses the non compliances and observations raised in the report being submitted together with objective evidences for all non compliances within 60 days. When this corrective action plan and the objective evidences are received at the AQC office, the audit reports shall be verified for conformance against the requirements of the certification standard. The client's file is reviewed to ensure an independent verification of compliance against certification checklist and grant of certification.
The stage 2 audit shall take place at the site(s) of the client. It shall include at least the following :
a) information and evidence about conformity to all requirements of the applicable management system standard or other normative document;
b) performance monitoring, measuring, reporting and reviewing against key performance objectives and targets (consistent with the expectations in the applicable management system standard or other normative document);c) the client's management system and performance as regards legal compliance; d) operational control of the client's processes;
e) internal auditing and management review;
f) management responsibility for the client's policies;
g) links between the normative requirements, policy, performance objectives and targets (consistent with the expectations in the applicable management system standard or other normative document), any applicable legal requirements, responsibilities, competence of personnel, operations, procedures, performance data and internal audit findings and conclusions.
Each certified organization shall be required to undergo a surveillance audit at once a year during the term of validity of its certification. The continual conformance of the organization management system with the certification standard shall be verified by auditing selected elements of the management system at each visit besides verification of the effectiveness of the corrective actions against the non-conformities raised during the previous audit.
The Auditors are required to complete the Reports in a precise and accurate manner. The justification for non inclusion of any element as per the ISO standards e.g. Design Control etc from the company's quality system should be carefully verified and recorded in the Report.
Information for granting initial certification
The information provided by the audit team to AQC for the certification decision shall be as per AQC procedure shall include, as a minimum,
a) the audit reports,
b) comments on the nonconformities and, where applicable, the correction and corrective actions taken by the client,
c) confirmation of the information provided to AQC used in the application review , and
d) a recommendation whether or not to grant certification, together with any conditions or observations.
AQC shall make the certification decision on the basis of an evaluation of the audit findings and conclusions and any other relevant information (e.g. public information, comments on the audit report from the client).
The audit team/AM shall analyze all information and audit evidence gathered during the stage 1 and stage 2 audits to review the audit findings and agree on the audit conclusions.
QC shall issue the certificate as per procedure
5. Surveillance audits
Surveillance audits are on-site audits, but are not necessarily full system audits. Surveillance audits planned together with the other surveillance activities so that the certification body can maintain confidence that the certified management system continues to fulfill requirements between recertification audits.The surveillance audits conducted at least once a year and the date of the first surveillance audit following initial certification shall not be more than 12 months from the last day of the stage 2 audit.
- The objective of surveillance audit is to:
- Ensure that the client's management system which was basis of grant of certificate has been maintained on continuous basis.
- Verify and ensure that any changes to management system which might have taken place since last audit meet the requirement of the standard/ specification and implemented effectively
- Ensure on-site audits assessing the certified client's management system's fulfillment of specified requirements with respect to the standard to which the certification is granted.
- Ensure that the management system continues to be appropriate to the product/ process/ service offered by client, with the capability of managing and improving performance.
- Assess continual improvement in client's management systems
6. Recertification Audit
There shall be recertification after every 3 year of certification .Conduct re-certification audit prior to certification period for continuation of Certificate of registration and subsequently followed up by Surveillance audits as per the accepted proposal. Re-certification audit shall be completed, preferably prior to one month of expiry of the present certificate of registration including the provision of adequate time to close any NCRs.
Appeal & Complaint Handling
Appeal
An applicant, a certified company or any interested party may appeal against a decision of AQC. The matter is referred to the Appeals Panel (Which is constituted from any two member of the Impartial Committee) whose decision is final and for the decision of the Appeal Panel the AQC is responsible. This Procedure is also publicly available on AQC website.
AQC is responsible for gathering and verifying all necessary information to validate the appeal. AQC also ensure that submission, Investigation and decision on appeal shall not result in any discriminatory actions against the appellant.
Appeal Process to receive , evaluate and make decision on appeal
1. Any aggrieved party can file the appeal with in 30 days against the decision of AQC by giving a notice or by mail to AQC.
2. CM will acknowledge the receipt of the appeal and the same shall be entered in the appeal register (refer F58). CM will gather and verify all necessary information to validate appeal.
3. The appeal shall be forwarded to the appeal panel for investigation. Appeal Panel also consider that what decision has been taken already in the similar previous appeals.
4. The appeal panel can ask the information from the aggrieved party and from AQC and both of the parties are bound to furnish the information within time limit as provided by the Appeal panel.
5. AQC will provide the information to the appellant about the progress, Action undertaken to resolve appeal, ensurity of appropriate correction and coreective action has taken and same to be entered in the appeal register.
6. AQC also provide the formal notice to the appellant that appeal panel decision and appeal handling process is completed.
7 .The whole process of appeal shall be finished with 60 days of the filing the appeal. In case delay then AQC shall justify the delay.
Complaints
AQC is responsible for all decisions at all levels of the complaints handling process. Any complaint received by AQC in writing or by e-mail or telephone in respect of its functions as a certification body or a company certified by it, shall be fully reviewed by the AM and shall be recorded in the complaint register with its nature. Submission, investigation and decision on complaints shall not result in any discriminatory actions against the complainant. The tracking and recording complaints, including actions undertaken in response to them is maintained by CM (Refer F59)
If the valid complaint relates to the certified client:
a) CM must ensure that the effectiveness of the certified management system is checked by competent auditor(s), who were not involved with the client previously.
b) The letter in question is sent to certified client within 30 days of receiving of complaint and recorded in the complaint register. The tracking and recording complaints, including actions undertaken in response to them is maintained by CM (Refer F59)
If the complaint is about certified client management system:
a) The CM ensures that the effectiveness of the certified management system is checked by competent auditor(s)/person(s) who were not involved with the client previously.
b) The concerned auditors may be summoned to confirm the facts if it relates to certification activity.
c) After root cause analysis, method to eliminate cause of complaint would be arrived at and suitable corrective and preventive measures instituted.
d) If the complaint is against an officer of AQC including CM then it will be investigated by the chairman of the Impartial Committee.
e) The complaint shall be closed within 60 days of the receiving of the complaint.
CM will:
a) Verify the promptness and effectiveness of the actions. Taken in respect of the complaint received ensure its prompt disposal.
b) Ensure that the complainant is advised of the result of the investigation within 60 days of the receipt of the complaint.
c) All complaints, after redressed & disposal, shall be closed through a closing note / closing call by the CM. Where applicable, certification will be restored as quickly as possible.
d) Ensures that any appropriate correction and corrective action are taken and also suitable preventive action is taken to avoid recurrence of such cases.
e) Ensure that Effectiveness of the measures adopted are covered during the Management Review Meeting
f) The entire process to be followed meets the requirement of confidentiality as it relates to the complaint and to the subject of the complaint. The complaints are recorded in the complaint register.
g) Gather and verify all necessary information to validate the complaint.
h) Ensures that the acknowledgement of receipt of the complaint is sent to the complainant and is informed about the progress and outcome of the result in writing every month till its closure.
i) Ensures that the decision communicated to the complainant is made reviewed and approved by the individual(s) not previously involved in the subject of the complaint.
j) Give formal notice of the end of the complaints-handling process to the complainant.
k) Ensures with the client and the complainant to the extent to which complaint may be made publicly available.
Ensure that the complaint has been closed within the 60 days of the receiving of the complaints. In case Complainant is not satisfied the decision of the AQC then complainant can make an appeal or can escalate of the complaint to EGAC.
SUSPENDING, WITHDRAWING OR REDUCING OR EXPENDING THE SCOPE OF CERTIFICATION:
- MD/ED has the authority to suspend certification in cases where on reviewing the audit reports and subsequent verification, he arrives to a conclusion that the :-
- Client’s certified management system has persistently or seriously failed to meet certification requirements, including requirements for the effectiveness of the management system in the surveillance audits
- The certified client does not allow surveillance or recertification audits to be conducted at the required frequencies as mentioned in the contract no.
- The certified client has voluntarily requested a suspension in writing to AQC.
- Under suspension, the client’s management system certification becomes temporarily invalid. MD/ED ensures the enforceable arrangements with its client to ensure that in case of case of suspension the client refrains from further promotion of its certifications per Agreement. AQC specify the subsequent actions taken by him.
- MD/ED ensures that the suspended status of the certification is publicly accessible on the website and also communicated to the client in writing.
- MD/ED ensures, if within 1 month of suspension or the time limit set by AQC the issues are not resolved that have resulted in the suspension, then the MD/ED takes decision of withdrawal or reduction of the scope of the certification and communicates in writing to the client and the list is updated on the website.
- Upon verification of audit reports and subsequent on-site verification, the MD/ED may reduce the client’s scope of certification to exclude the parts not meeting the requirements, when the client has persistently or seriously failed to meet the certification requirements for those parts of the scope of certification. MD/ED ensures the reduction shall be in the line with the requirements of the standards used for certification.
- MD/ED ensures that there is enforceable arrangements with the certified client concerning conditions of suspension/withdrawal ensuring upon notice of certification that the client discontinues its use of all advertising matter that contains any reference to a certified status as per contract.
- MD/ED ensures through TC, it correctly state the status of certification of a client’s management system as being suspended, withdrawal or reduced in AQC website.
- AQC may publish status of certification in newspaper as necessary.
AQC can expand the scope of the in the following situation :- - Request received from the client company.
- Onsite request from client to the audit team and Audit team recommended that scope can be extended and no extra time was required for the extended scope.
REFUSING, RENEWING, RESTORING FOLLOWING SUSPENSION OF CERTIFICATION:
AQC can refuse for the certification :
• Client organization is not ready to conduct the stage 2 audit within the stipulated time
• Client organization is not closing the NC with the stipulated time frame.
• Client organization has not paid the full amount or any other dues of AQC.
• Client organistaion has denied to AQC audit team to provide access to the information required to achive the objective of the audit.
AQC provide the 120 days time for the restoration to the client organization to resolve the issues of suspension.
AQC can renew the certificate of the client organization due to;
• Standard Requirements
• Client request
Certification Rules
Accredited Management System Certification Rules
Introduction
In today’s fiercely competitive environment of the global market place, it has become imperative for companies over a wide range of manufacturing and service sectors to provide assurance of the quality of their products or services through an implementation of a variable ISO 9001/14001/22000/OHS 18001 management system. International standards ISO 9001, 14001, 22000 & OHS 18001 series stipulate the minimum requirements for a documented Quality/Environmental/Food Safety/Occupation Health Safety system to be established and a Certificate of Compliance to these standards has now become an international criteria of assessing a company’s credibility and capability to consistently meet quality standards to the customer satisfaction.
Purpose
The purpose of this description of the AQC GLOBAL LLC Certification Rules is to provide relevant information regarding AQC GLOBAL LLC services for conducting our impartial and competent assessment of a company’s management system for issue and maintenance of an accredited certification ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 & 22000 Standard.
Scope
The accredited certification scheme operated by AQC GLOBAL LLC is a third party system certification scheme with an objective of giving recognition to companies who have effectively implemented and operate a verifiable documented system. It covers the following scope
- Preliminary meeting to establish scope of registration and the applicable standard.
- Conduct of independent audits for certification
- Issue of accredited certifications as per accredited scope sectors
- Surveillance visits for verification of conformance of quality systems to certification standard.
- The organization need to develop a system in respect to ISO 9001:2008/ ISO 14001:2004/IS 18001:2007/ ISO 22000:2005 as per the applicable management system for which they need the certification.
Certification Procedure
- Enquiry and Fee Quotation:- Upon receipt of an enquiry, the AQC GLOBAL LLC Questionnaire is required to be completed by the applicant company. Based upon the information provided, a detailed offer is submitted for client’s consideration and acceptance.
- Application:- Upon confirmation of acceptance of AQC GLOBAL LLC fee offer and the receipt of client’s application together with the application fee, the process of certification commences with scheduling of audits on mutually agreeable dates.
- Extension of Certification:- Whenever the clients applies for the extension of Scope/ addition of sites, facilities etc. the same is verified during a special visit or at the next surveillance audit and based upon the recommendations of Lead Assessor and verification of audit reports a decision is taken for issue of amended certification for scope extension.
Audit Process
- Documentation Review and Stage 1 Audit : For most management system, it is recommended that at least part of the stage-I audit be carried out at the client promises in order to achieve the objectives. An onsite review of the client’s optional Quality/Environmental/Occupational Health Safety/Food Safety management systems documentation is conducted to verify that the requirements of the applicable ISO standard are satisfactorily addressed. A report is issued listing any non-conformity against which corrective actions requires to be taken as per a corrective action plan to be submitted. The degree of implementation of the quality systems is also assessed to agree on a tentative stage 2 audit schedules. In particular, the records of the Internal Audit, Corrective Actions and the Management Reviews shall be verified to assess the level of Implementation of the Organization’s documented managent System, so as to ensure that the Quality management System is mature before the Stage-II assessment is scheduled to be conducted. The evaluation may be carried out during Stage-I by the Organization’s. Management and risk analysis is carried out before proceeding to the next stage of audit
- Stage 2 Audit : Following the Stage-I audit, AQC GLOBAL LLC will conduct a Stage-II certification audit to assess conformity with the requirements of the applicable ISO standard. A report categorizing any non conformities or weakness in the implementation of the documented quality systems are issued.
- Corrective Actions and Follow-up : The company is required to submit a Corrective Action Plan addressing the non-conformities within a given time frame. Corrective actions against all major conformities require to be verified during a follow up visit and / or through provision of objective evidence of effective implementation, prior to confirmation of certification. Observations are also recorded relating to various elements of the documented management systems as per the certification standard which do not significantly affect the operation of the system but do nevertheless indicate a problem which may need correction.
- In the event of major non conformities being identified (Category ‘A’) in respect of the implementation of any element of the quality system or several minor non-conformities being recorded against any one element which renders the system deficient but operable, a recommendation for certification is made subject to a CAP being submitted within 2 weeks and corrective actions being verified onsite and closed out through a special visit within 8 weeks of the assessment date, before certification is granted or as decided by CEO.
- Where the audit has revealed only minor non conformities (Category ‘B’) which need to be addressed through corrective actions, the certification may be recommended subject to the CAP ( Corrective Action Plan) being submitted by the company within 2 weeks together with objective evidences of the corrective actions taken. The corrective actions plan is required to be closed out upon physical verification of the satisfactory implementation at the first subsequent audit.
- In the case of where “opportunities for improvement: (Category ‘C’) having been recorded during the certification audit, the actions, as applicable, are observed for effectiveness at the subsequent audit visit.
Issue of Certificate
Upon completion of the review of all audit documentation and corrective actions being closed out, AQC GLOBAL LLC will issue the Certificate of Registration to the company. VALIDITY AND RENEWAL OF CERTIFICATE : Certificates issued by AQC GLOBAL LLC remain valid for three years subject to the conformance of the quality management systems to the certification standards being verified and found satisfactory during periodical surveillance audits. Upon expiry, Certificate of Registration is renewed for a further term of three years after conduct of a satisfactory reassessment.
Surveillance Audit
AQC GLOBAL LLC Certifications are issued subject to the maintenance and continual conformance of the documented Quality/ environmental/ OHSAS/ Food Safety systems to the certification standards. Surveillance audits shall be conducted at periodic interact at least once a year during the three year term of validity of the Certificate followed by a re-assessment of the quality systems for renewal of the certification prior to its expiry. The frequency of the surveillance audits has to be at least once in 12 months from the date of closing meeting of the certification audit i.e., two surveillance audits to be conducted during the three year period of validity at annual interact. In case of nine monthly surveillance audit 3 surveillance audits will be conducted and in case of six monthly surveillance audit 5 surveillance audits will be conducted. The nine monthly and six monthly surveillance audits will be conducted in case the organization demands the same during the singing of the contract.
Special Audits
A special visit may require to be made to the certificate company’s premises in the following circumstances
- AQC GLOBAL LLC has reason to believe that the documented systems are inadequately maintained with major deficiencies in operation.
- In case of any change in the management system standard due to which the certification requirements are going to be changed, client will be intimated in advance for the transition audit and audit will be scheduled after the consent of the organization. But the audit has to be done before the defined timeframe.
- Upon intimation by the certified company, of any significant change in the certified documented system. Including extension of scope visit will decide, whether the extension of scope sector can be granted or not. This may be clubed with the surveillance audit this surveillance audit program shall include at least
(A) Internal audit and management review
(B) A review of actions taken on NC identified during the previous audit.
(C) Treatment of complaint
(D) Effectiveness of the management system w.r.t. achieving the certified client objectives.
(E) Progress of planned activities aimed at continual improvement
(F) Continuing operational control
(G) Review of any changes
(H) Use of marks and or any other reference to certification
Short Notice Audit
As a result of a complaint, by any party, any adverse publicity or contravention of the conditions of certification or other information received and suspended client. The special visits will be undertaken after due notice has been given and details agreed between AQC GLOBAL LLC and visits will be undertaken after due notice has been given and details agreed between the certified company. Due care is take of the following.
- Information is given to the client in advance regarding the re-source of the visit with details.
- Due care is taken to select the auditor to Safeguard Lack of Reason to client for objection to the auditor.
Suspension, Withdrawal, Extension and reduction of Certification
Suspension : The grounds for suspending the certificate are as follows
- If the certified organization is not getting the Surveillance audit conducted as per the certification agreement.
- If the client is found to misuse the logo of the Certification Body or is using any kind of misleading statement which might affect the reputation of the certification body and the accreditation board.
Logo Rules
Use Of AQC Management System Mark, Logos And Symbols:
A company certified by AQC GLOBAL LLC (AQC) may use the AQC logo on company letterheads and literature, subject to the conditions below:
(A) Use of the symbols on stationary or other media shall not be used by a certified client unless the use relates in whole or in part to certification endorsed by AQC.
Note: Clients where AQC has certified subsidiaries, divisions, departments or offices of a company and not the company as a whole is most affected by this requirement. Clients must exercise care in the use of certification logo and marks to ensure no misrepresentation of scope for which certification is granted.
(B) The symbol shall not be used on a product, packing, packaging, laboratory test, calibration or inspection reports or certificates or tests reports from test or in any way that may be interpreted to denote product conformity.
(C) Use of certification marks to indicate that a product has been made under a certified quality management system.
(D) The Mark may only be reproduced in a single colour which is unlimited, but where practical should conform to existing preprinted stationery, brochures, letterheads or other promotional materials of the Company.
(E) Client can use any statement on product packaging material that client has certified management system. The statement shall in no way imply that the product, process or service is certified anyway. The statement shall include
· Identification like brand name of the Client
· The type of management system certified
· The name of AQC which is issuing the certificate.
(F) The Client company can use the logo in the same color combination as specified or in any single
Use Of Accreditation Board EGAC Marks, Logos And Symbols
1. EGAC logo can be use only when the client's SCOPE is covered under EGAC accreditation of AQC.
2. The logo shall not be used in any way that it misleads the reader about the accredited status of the certification body or the certified body.
3. The accreditation body's logo shall not be used on the packaging of a product, labels, publicity material, written announcements etc, that in any way suggest that the accreditation body has certified or approved any product, process or service of the certified body or in any other misleading manner.
4. The logo shall not be displayed on vehicles except in publicity material like part of a large advertisement.
5. The logo shall not be displayed on buildings and flags.
6. The logo shall not be used on the visiting cards
7. The logos can be reproduced in any size, as long as they do not distort or alter the relative proportions of the logo
Discontinuation Of The AQC Certification Logo And / Or EGAC Accreditation Logo
1. A client certified by AQC shall discontinue the use of the AQC certification logo and / or EGAC accreditation mark immediately when any of the following conditions exist:
2. A lapse of certification, suspension or withdrawn;
3. The client has made a change to his Quality System which has not been accepted by AQC, and which could reasonably be expected to affect the client's qualification for certification;
4. The client has failed to implement a change to the system requirements issued by AQC;
5. Any other circumstances, which arise, which could reasonably be expected to adversely affect the client's Quality System certified by AQC, as identified in the contract agreement.
Misuse And Penalty
Misuse of AQC certification logo and / or EGAC accreditation mark would lead to corrective action, withdrawal of certification, publication of the transgression and, if necessary, other legal action.