Meaning of gsuitable stagesh for design reviews
(Oct.3
w,2004)

1. Company A had received nonconformity about design review
Company A got ISO9001 registration ten years ago. During the years the same assessor had done surveillance assessment. Recently the assessor had changed and a new assessor came.
The new assessor pointed out as a nonconformity that against requirements of design reviews in ISO9001: 2000, the company did not do design reviews before design verification.
The management representative of the company made an objection to the nonconformity saying that the Standard requires design reviews shall be done at gsuitable stagesh, therefore there was no requirement a fixed sequence about design reviews.
But the assessor strongly asserted his nonconformity. Finally the management representative could not help admitting the nonconformity.

2. Two problems on the nonconformity
The one is a false understanding of gsuitable stagesh by the assessor. The meaning of gsuitable stagesh explained by a diagram in gISO9000 for Small Businesses: Advice from ISO/TC176h, shown below.

Simplified diagram of the relationship between design review,
design verification and design validation

I insert letters of A, B, C and D in the diagram for explaining following passages clearly.
According to the diagram, the meaning of gsuitable stagesh is that you can select stages from A, B, C and D, corresponding to your product nature, the processes employed and the size and structure of your company. The assessor insisted on the uniformity of C. It is a false understanding of gsuitable stagesh.

The other problem was that it is not a fair assessment for the certification body because the nonconformity was different by assessors.@The assessment criteria are unstable for such an important matter.