Assessment Process
LRQA offers a range of services to assist you in developing and driving improvement of your management systems, including training and development courses, pre-assessment options and service reviews. Our options below provide an outline only of the typical assurance process – however individual standards and schemes may have a different assessment route. For further detail or assistance, please contact a Business Advisor at 1-866-563-4654.
Gap analysis - This is typically performed prior to certification or verification to identify areas needing development. It is an assessor-delivered activity which will look at what the company has in place against the requirements of the standard or scheme. LRQA provides a report detailing those areas for improvement and where resource can be directed in order to create a certifiable system.
Preliminary assessment - You decide on the scope and duration of this activity from a one-day review of a specific function to a full ‘dry run’ prior to the formal certification or verification visit.
Certification/verification - Typically, these are two stage events involving two site visits, the duration of which is variable according to the standard or scheme. These two visits are known as:
Stage one document review and planning visit – your assessor will need to establish that your management system is soundly based and documented before proceeding to the second visit.
Stage two initial assessment – this will focus on the implementation of your system.
Following the second visit, your assessor should be in a position to advise whether your system is compliant with the requirements of the standard. Prior to the certificate being issued, all files undergo review by an LRQA technical expert and if successful, your certificate will be issued within a few weeks.
View our Client Extranet for further assessment process details.