Merging ISO 9001 Certified and Non-certified Organizations

My federal agency is comprised of many different internal organizations. We have a scenario where a recently ISO 9001:2008 certified organization is planned to be merged with a non-certified organization that has no type of management system. The certified organization’s certification runs for three years but it will be more closely integrated with the non-certified organizations. Will the merger affect the certified organization’s certification? Do you have any insights on how these types of occurrences typically affect the management system itself when an organization that is certified for 100% of its operations now becomes 50% of a larger organization? It’s quite likely that the certified organization’s name will change at least in part.
Donald R. – Nov. 3, 2010

Dear Donald,

Your ISO registrar needs to be immediately informed of changes effecting the company name, top management and/or processes.  The registrar may very likely require the newly merged companies to be reevaluated for ISO certification and listed under one ISO certification.

If company “A” is already ISO 9001:2008 certified and is now being merged with a non-certified company here’s what should be considered.  Firstly, the current ISO certification is only applicable to company “A” as defined in the scope of the quality manual as well as on the ISO 9001 certification issued by the ISO registrar.

Most ISO registrar’s will not issue ISO certification for just a portion of a company.  All processes that comprise the quality system must be identified and included as a part of the QMS unless specific exclusion is stated in the quality manual as permitted by ISO 9001.  The management representative will need to insure that top management is aware of how this merge may affect the current QMS so effective actions can be taken to bring company “B” in line with the established QMS procedures and other ISO requirements.  I hope this helps.

Best regards,
Bill