The certification process

You have decided that you want your product, process, service, (management) system or personnel to be certified according to a certain certification scheme. Kiwa helps you from start - aligning your company - to finish - handing you your certificate.

Here are the steps to take

    Aligning to a guideline

    In order to be certified, it is vital to align your company or organisation to a certain certification guideline. We can help you with that by performing an initial audit or certification test on your product. Such a step can give you helpful insights into whether your product, process or system meets all requirements.
    All requirements, regulations and laws that apply to a product, process or (management) system that you want certifying are described in some kind of guideline document. Such guidelines have been independently drawn up by a Board of Experts, often representing all parties involved in a certain market sector or profession, such as clients, manufacturers, suppliers, consultants and authorities. The guideline forms the basis for certification. The Board of Experts also determines the qualifications for auditors and inspectors (who assess what has been laid down in the guideline) and sets the frequency and request for audits.

    Audit and issuing of certificates

    Once you are ready to have your product, process, service or (management) system certified, a Kiwa auditor will audit it. He or she represents us as the independent third party (alongside those who have drawn up the guideline). If the audit shows that the item to be certified item meets all requirements, you will receive the certificate and our certification quality mark (if applicable). If any defects are found, you will get at least six months to implement improvement measures.

    Monitoring certification

    After initial certification, a Kiwa auditor will regularly (announced and unannounced) visit your company to check that the product, process or system continues to meet requirements and still warrants the certificate. As the certificate holder, you have the right to use a quality mark, but you are obliged to observe the applicable requirements. If any anomalies are found, we may impose sanctions.

Pricing

Our high-quality certification activities have their price. How much you pay, depends on the complexity and size of your organisation, the number of locations or subsidiaries involved and the nature of the certification. Naturally, Kiwa will always provide you with an estimate of the time and cost involved prior to starting the procedure. Usually, you can earn these costs back rapidly for the simple reason that an independent quality label increases your market chances.

Kiwa approval

Just to close the loop: we act as an independent third party when certificating, but we, too, are approved on a regular basis ourselves. The vast majority of systems, products, processes and certification of person regulations have been accredited by the Accreditation Council and European accreditation institutions.

See our Accreditations and notifications

More information?

Contact us!

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