Dear Keith, No real suprises with BCIQ. Our A2LA audit was more difficult in terms of technical questions. However, they are well versed on Quality Systems. All I can tell you is that our BCIQ auditors were very concerned about environmental conditions, temp humidity etc., and where in our test procedures does it mention this as a consideration for running conducted and radiated. We had several MINOR deviations which can be easily corrected. However, I heard from our translator who later found in a personal conversation with BCIQ that if one MAJOR deviation is found then the laboratory must be completely reaudited. This reaudit will cause about a 2-3 month delay and cost double the amount. I have heard rumors of at least two labs in California who have failed the BCIQ audit because of poor record keeping and sloppy equiment and OATS maintenance. My suggestion is to expect the absolute worst and get the expertise if possible of a bilingual EMC engineer. We were fortunate enough to have a bilingual Quality Manager/EMC Engineer on our team who performed flawlessly. Remember, all it takes is one MAJOR deviation and your back to square one.
The BCIQ audit is a second party audit not third so they are especially careful if you are going to represent them in USA. My last suggestion is that you serve Tea in the mornings and afternoon and personalize their visit as much as possible. They do travel with VISA and intend on using it. Good luck. Regards, SJK --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to [email protected] with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected] (the list administrators).
