Economies of Scale

About two thirds of all three standards (ISO9001, 14001 and AS4801) are practically identical.  Sure there are words that differ from clause to clause, but the intent are identical.  And sure some of these do have nuances (not bad for a Monday) that would like to impose a certain importance to a sub clause because ‘we at the safety fraternity need this to be highlighted!’, but they are the same.

There is a great handbook from Standards Australia (HB139:2003) that demonstrate the sameness and the differences, almost word for word.  This book is so good, that they haven’t needed to republish it since the 2008 version of ISO 9001.

Now having said all this, why can’t our certification service providers pass on these economies of scale to the client?  Ask them and they will blame JAS-ANZ.  If they do, ask them to show you the JAS-ANZ ruling or even their own published documentation that stipulates what they can or cannot economise.  Unfortunately, they are not willing to share such commercially sensitive information and mostly because it is very difficult for them to find it within their own systems.

It is far easier just to throw auditor resources at the situation, to gouge the client by double dipping, even triple dipping into the audit duration, auditor days and reporting.  It is far easier to account for billing time and way to easy just to keeping piling up expenses in a very cheap and nasty exercise of squeezing out the last minutia of fees.

This is exacerbated by the huge disconnect between the auditors, the skill sets, the risk profile and the sales process.  Add in the lack of incentive for auditors to suggest economies of scale and it all becomes easier for them.  Expensive for you.  Expensive in auditor days, fees and complexity.

The real trick is to get a skilled auditor in both technical expertise of the standards and commercial acumen.  And as these people are difficult to find, your friendly certification provider will default to their easy, expensive  route.