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Experience working with TUV SUD or Rheinland, and/or BSI

Discussion in 'Registrars (Certification Bodies) & Registration' started by Shell936, Apr 24, 2020.

  1. Shell936

    Shell936 New Member

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    Looking to share any current issues that your company may be experiencing.
    delay with replies or certificates being issued?
    Non-responsive? delayed audits?
    Please share your experiences. Positive feedback also welcomed.
     
  2. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    Hello: Welcome to the Forum and great question.

    Are you ONLY considering these two? Is there a specific reason? Like NB status (both are for medical devices). Do you have other options? Which region are you in?
     
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  3. Shell936

    Shell936 New Member

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    Yes. Only these 2. We have experience with the first 2 but not the last. NB status must be for medical devices. Midwest Region, US
     
  4. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    I've never heard a negative comment regarding TUV...
     
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  5. Mike S.

    Mike S. Member

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    BSI doesn't impress me. I have had some issues with them where I had to go over the head of my account rep for lack of response and poor customer service.
     
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  6. yodon

    yodon Well-Known Member

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    I've had good luck with BSI. They're the best... at least that's what they'll tell you. :) Seriously, I've found their auditors to be consistently better than auditors from other organizations.

    They have had some issues recently. Between MDR and IVDR (I think) recognition and Brexit, they've been doing a lot of scrambling. It didn't impact me or any of my clients using BSI, though. Not saying they're perfect, by any means, but overall I've been pleased.

    Never used any of the TUVs - had one client using them and some of the audit findings were a bit wonky but nothing egregious (very small sample size, obviously).
     
  7. Mike S.

    Mike S. Member

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    From a quality of auditor standpoint, both the BSI auditors I dealt with were BSI contractors, not direct hires. One of them had good qualifications on paper but was an embarrassingly bad auditor, and one was a very good auditor.
     
  8. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    I've found it's a case of getting a balance between the office-based activities, such as sales, the assigned client contact (CSR), schedulers etc and the operations side, including the auditor(s). The 2 sometimes don't complement each other! It's worth spending the time to research both and to single out a couple of auditors you can work with - irrespective on the way they get paid. That's actually not a factor of significant merit (employee vs contractor). It's their knowledge and personality which counts for most.
     
  9. Mike S.

    Mike S. Member

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    I didn't mean to imply that contractors were good or bad, better or worse than direct employees. I agree that it is the capability of the auditor that matters. However, the one difference I found is that BSI (and maybe others) will try to force you to use one of their staff auditors whether you want to or not, because they are already paying them, so they want to get as much work out of them as possible. If you find a really good auditor that is a contractor, you may have to fight to get him or her to be allowed to come back if the staff auditor has open time.
     
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  10. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    There's some "inside baseball" stuff going on. It's not as simple as that I'd suggest. Having been on the management team of a CB, I can assure you that it may look like an employee is scheduled first, but its more complex or at least there are many other considerations.
     
  11. Mike S.

    Mike S. Member

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    Perhaps sometimes it is more complex, but in my case I was told by BSI that the reason my CSR refused my request to have a particular auditor come back next time (a year later) was that they had a direct employee that they needed work for. The contractor I wanted to come back next year had told me he had open time and was happy to come back. It was a fight that had to escalate to the CSR's boss to get resolved, finally in our favor.

    Like I say, we have had crappy auditors, average auditors, and very good auditors over the years, and when we get a good one, we really don't wanna spin the wheel and take a chance -- we want the good one back. It is the same principal as when I find a good mechanic, builder, doctor, or whatever.
     
  12. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    Aha, the "customer focus" (a clause of ISO 9001, I seem to recall) component of a Quality Management System - oddly missing in this case...
     
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