National Certification Body to Host Stakeholders Forum

The National Certification Body of Jamaica (NCBJ) will be hosting a stakeholders’ forum on June 5 to inform certified companies on the requirements to make the transition from the global ISO 9001:2008 standard to ISO 9001: 2015 Quality Management Systems (QMS) equivalent.

The forum is being staged in partnership with the Jamaica Manufacturing Association (JMA), under the theme: “Demystifying ISO 9001:2015”, and will be held at the JMA’s board room, 85A Duke Street, downtown Kingston.

ISO 9000 is a series of standards, developed and published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), that define, establish, and maintain a quality assurance system for the manufacturing and service industries.

ISO 9000 deals with the fundamentals of quality management systems, including the eight management principles upon which the family of standards is based.

ISO 9001 deals with the requirements that organizations wishing to meet the standard must fulfill. The standards are available through national standards bodies, such as the NCBJ.

In an interview with JIS News, NCBJ Manager, Jacqueline Scott-Brown, underscored the importance of informing certified companies about the transition.

“Companies with ISO 9001:2008 certification in Jamaica and everywhere will have to transition and implement the new requirements for ISO 9001:2015. Although the standard has not yet been released, they can at least begin to put things in place as some of these changes may require long term plans. So this forum will help them to look at what they have now, what the new standards will require, and (thus enable them to) start implementing the changes,” Mrs. Brown explained.

She advised that the forum will be a technical working session, targeting all ISO 9001 certified companies; companies in the process of implementing the standard; internal and external auditors; technical experts; quality assurance professionals; management representatives; project managers and team leaders; executive and senior managers; consultants; and QMS practitioners.

For further details on the forum, persons may contact the NCBJ at 926-3140-2 or 564-1453, or by email at msturride@bsj.org.jm