Conformity assessment

COMMUNIQUE

February 25, 2000

Results of ISO/CASCO one-day meeting on guidance documentation of CASCO normative documents, Geneva, 24 January 2000

Background

ISO/CASCO, IEC/CAB (IECEE), IAF, ILAC and CEN/CENELEC/TC1 representatives met on 24 January 2000 to discuss further cooperation on the development and dissemination of guidance documents of CASCO normative documents, in response to Resolution 21 taken at the May 1999 CASCO plenary meeting, as appearing overleaf.

Common Views Reached

1.   Relationship between CASCO normative documents and other organizations' guidance documents

CASCO produces documents with basic, generic requirements to ensure competence of conformity assessment activities, agreed by international consensus. Other organizations which apply to their operations the ISO/IEC documents produced by CASCO, such as IAF, ILAC and IECEE, may need to prepare their guidance documents based on relevant ISO/IEC Guides and Standards for conformity assessment procedures to ensure consistency of their own assessments. Such guidance documents may provide operational procedures, and further specificity and clarification on basic, generic requirements.

In this regard, the ISO/IEC documents produced by CASCO, and guidance documents to these documents that other organizations produce for their own assessments, are complementary.

It was noted that representatives from both IAF and ILAC cited careful use of language in their guidance documents in order not to add requirements to the generic ones in CASCO documents. It was also noted that all the CASCO members should be encouraged to refrain from developing guidance documents which specify additional requirements to the general ones within the relevant ISO/IEC documents.

2.   Further cooperation between CASCO and IAF and ILAC; feedback to CASCO on IAF and ILAC's experience

IAF, ILAC and other organizations incorporate their operational experience in applying relevant ISO/IEC documents in their guidance documents. Further specificity and clarification of the generic requirements of the ISO/IEC normative documents appearing in their guidance documents were seen as useful to CASCO for further improvement of its generic documents.

In this regard, the roles of ISO/IEC and other bodies are distinct: ISO and IEC are the standards-writers, whereas the other organizations are users of the ISO/IEC Guides and Standards, and developers of guidance documents, some of which can be regarded as pre-standardization work. One example is ISO/IEC Guide 25, which began as an ILAC document and has become an International Standard.

Establishing and facilitating use of effective feedback loops between the standards-writers and the bodies applying the Guides and Standards are useful feedback mechanisms for improving ISO/IEC documents. One notable case is the recently-published ISO/IEC Guide 66, for which IAF's experience in applying ISO/IEC Guide 62 in the EMS field and their relevant guidance document as well as direct participation in the CASCO working group developing Guide 66 were useful inputs.

It was noted, therefore, that continuous awareness of feedback from the users of ISO/IEC documents produced by CASCO, such as users' guidance documents clarifying basic, generic requirements of the ISO/IEC documents, was important for further improvement of the documents. In this respect, a more rapid review cycle for ISO/IEC documents and use of amendments or other means would be effective to implement and encourage the feedback.

As a pilot project to explore an effective feedback loop device, ISO/CASCO, IECEE and ILAC agreed to collaborate for monitoring and surveying market feedback on recently published ISO/IEC 17025.

Participants

Chairman: Mr. J. Donaldson, ISO/CASCO Chairman (ANSI , USA)

From ISO/CASCO: Mr. M. Matsumoto (JISC, Japan), Mr. L. Tronel (AFNOR, France), Mr. M. Wittner (IRAM, Argentina)

From IEC: Pierre de Ruvo (IEC Central Office, Geneva)

From IAF: Mr. R. Brockway (UKAS, United Kingdom) Mrs. E. Nilsen (SCC, Canada)

From ILAC: Dr. Belinda Collins (NIST, USA)

From CEN/CENELEC/TC1: Mr. J. McDonald (BSI, United Kingdom), Mr. Olivier Peyrat (AFNOR/AFAQ, France), Dr. P. van de Leemput (RvA, Netherlands)

CASCO RESOLUTION 21/1999

CASCO

notes that external liaisons currently 8 6c8 develop their own guidance documents for CASCO normative documents,

requests WG 5 to develop the definitions of "interpretation" and "application" as applied to CASCO normative documents and to report back to CASCO,

agrees to organize a one-day event to discuss further cooperation of the issue of guidance on CASCO normative documents among IAF, ILAC, CEN and CASCO, and notes that Mr. L. Tronel (AFNOR), a representative from ANSI to be named, Mr. M. Wittner (IRAM) and Mr. M. Matsumoto (JISC) volunteer to participate in the event, and

directs the Secretary to invite other members of CASCO to participate.