On Registration

What is Registration?

Registration is the process of evaluating your quality system to the requirements defined within a national or international quality system standard by qualified and experienced quality professionals employed by independent registration organizations commonly referred to as "Registrars". It includes the issuance of a certificate of registration and the inclusion of your company's name on a publicly available registration list established for reference and referral. All of the Registrars will allow you to incorporate their established registration trademark or symbol on your stationary and marketing material to attest that you have a registered quality system.

Registration is often referred to as certification. This is not necessarily incorrect since the Registrar issues a certificate of registration. The term certification, however, is generally reserved for products, processes and qualifications of individuals. Registration on the other hand only involves the assessment of your quality system and does not include the certification or qualification of any products, processes or services.

What are the benefits of Registration?

The registration of your quality system is not a mandatory requirement to do business in North America or Europe. At least not yet. There is, however, a growing world trend towards quality system registration because of the perceived benefits it provides which include:

How much does Registration cost?

Costs for achieving registration will vary and depend on the size and complexity of your organization, the number of facilities you have, the standard you have chosen, your location, how well you have prepared, and how responsive you are to resolving deficiencies identified by the Registrar.

The bottom line here is that the registering organizations who provide this service, have a basic hourly rate of between $100 to $200 per hour, per professional.  From experience, we suggest that the following can dramatically increase your costs and time frame for achieving registration:

What is meant by Registration by facility?

One aspect that continues to confuse many individuals is the interpretation of what a facility is. This is a very important factor since registration is by facility. Initially, it was considered to be a building, i.e. bricks and mortar. This clear cut interpretation creates a problem however when situations arise involving companies seeking registration for multiple business locations each of which may only have two or three employees. Common sense dictates that in this scenario it would not be feasible or realistic for each facility to strive to achieve independent registration. The answer lies within the defined scope of your quality system. In other words, if within your quality manual you encompass three locations as part of your quality system, then those locations would also be included as part of the on-site assessment of your quality system.

How long does Registration take?

The registration process can be achieved within thirty days. Having said that, however, we strongly advise against you speculating that this will be the time frame required for your organization. Why? Because this time frame is only given as an example of what is probably the absolute minimum time necessary to go through all the hoops of the registration process. This, of course, is assuming that your quality system and everything associated with it is in complete and absolute compliance with the requirements.

Realistically, this is seldom the case and the amount of time required to achieve registration will depend on a number of factors including:

For scheduling purposes, we recommend that you allow 3 to 6 months for the registration process.

How long is Registration for?

When you "sign-up" for registration, the standard duration of the contract between you and the Registrar is generally for three (3) years. After this, you need to re-establish a new contract.

Who controls the Registrars?

As Registrars evaluate quality systems, they themselves are evaluated and continuously monitored by an independent National body responsible for "Accreditation".

In the United States, registration is regulated by the Registrar Accreditation Board or RAB.  In Canada this accreditation body is the Standards Council of Canada or SCC. 

Without going through all the detailed requirements which have to be met by Registrars, it is imperative to emphasize that achieving accreditation is not an easy task and involves an in-depth assessment of the Registrar's organization. This includes evaluating the methods followed while conducting business, the qualifications of personnel and requires that Registrars themselves have an acceptably documented and implemented quality system. It should be noted that the accreditation process generally takes an organization a minimum of one year to achieve, but has often taken longer. The cost for accreditation can be substantial as well. The would-be Registrar must pay for all expenses submitted by the accreditation body during the evaluation stage which often falls into the six-figure bracket.

Who are the Registrars in North America? 

When it comes time to select a Registrar for quality system registration, most companies are not aware of the organizations that provide this service in North America. To gain further information regarding who are the Accredited Registrars in North America, check out our links to the Registrars below:

American                                                     Canadian

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