ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board 20th Anniversary

Recently, I read an article in Quality Progress (Oct 2010) entitled “Marking a Milestone – ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board celebrates 20 years” and I would like to share the history of ANAB below.

ASQ recognized there would be a need for independent third parties to determine conformance to the standards. The Registrar Accreditation Board (RAB) under ASQ was formed on 29 Jan 1990. RAB and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) agreed to operate the American National Accreditation Program for Registrars of Quality Systems on 13 Dec 1991. In 1996, ANSI-RAB National Accreditation Program (NAP) covered ISO 9001 (QMS) and ISO 14001 (EMS).

In order to harmonize different accreditation bodies, RAB and ANSI signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Netherlands’ Raad voor de Certificatie (RvC) in Oct 1992. RAB later signed MOUs with other national accreditation bodies.

The ANSI-RAB NAP became a legal entitly jointly owned by ANSI and ASQ, and it was renamed the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) and effective on 1st Jan 2005.

The photo was taken during ANAB surveillance visit to HKQAA ISO 27001 audit process and HKSTP was selected for this audit.

(Left: I, Mr. Brian Henry (Executive Assessment Team Leader, ANAB), Ms. Lily Wang (Interpreter) and Mr. Phillip Chan (ISO 27001 Auditor, HKQAA))

There were many relationships with ASQ as follows.
HKSQ is the world partner of ASQ. HKSTP and HKQAA is HKSQ corporate member. HKSTP was certified for ISO 27001 by HKQAA under ANAB accreditation.

Reference:
ANAB: http://www.anab.org/
ASQ: http://www.asq.org/
HKQAA: http://www.hkqaa.org/
HKSTP Lab: http://www.lab.hkstp.org/
HKSQ: http://www.hksq.org/
Quality Progress (Oct 2010): “Marking a Milestone – ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board celebrates 20 years” (p.22-23)