ISO9001 Part Business Accreditation

I am doing some work for a company that is looking to get ISO9001 for a specific part of the business. The company in question carries out multiple activities on its site but is looking to get ISO9001 accreditation for only one part of the business at present i.e. it’s build to print business. The build to print part of the business takes a design from a customer and then procures parts, assembles, inspects and tests the parts into final units before shipping to the customer who is design responsible.

My thoughts are that it would be possible to gain ISO 9001 accreditation where the scope is “build to print” only and exceptions/exemptions could be detailed, i.e. the product design element.

The long term goal is that they want to get ISO9001 across the whole business, but the “build to print” business is coming under increasing pressure from the customer base to gain ISO9001 accreditation.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this please? Thanks.​

 

Partial business certification (not accreditation) can be accomplished via a well thought-out scope of certification, which should be clearly phrased in the actual certificate, so, there is no chance for people to misunderstand what part of the business is actually being certified. Note that creating a border around the part of the business that is seeking certification can not be misused to "exclude" processes that are part of the QMS and necessary to operate, in order to give confidence to the stakeholders affected by the certified scope.

Typically you would discuss this with the potential certification bodies you are considering to certify the organization

 

+1 Just define what's covered in the scope. When the time comes, expand that scope.