1. An update of QACE RO Assessment & Certification activities
27/06/2017
QACE
An update of QACE RO Assessment & Certification activities
Klaus Grensemann, Chairman Board of Directors
Des Gutteridge, Secretary General

2. An update regarding the QACE 2016 RO Assessments
27/06/2017
An update regarding the QACE 2016 RO Assessments
Advice on the 2017 QACE Collective Recommendations
To obtain member States feedback regarding any interest areas that may be included in the QACE assessment programme
Presentation
Objectives
Speaking: Klaus Grensemann, Chairman of the QACE Board of Directors
Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen.
On behalf of the QACE Board of Directors and Secretariat QACE thanks the Member States and Commission for the invitation to provide an update on the assessment and certification of the RO’s Quality Management Systems.
QACE believes that the key objectives from last year’s presentation, in a common awareness of QACE activities and the QACE application of EC Regulation No 391/2009 Article 11, were achieved. This year’s presentation and we hope future year’s presentations will cover and update of QACE assessment activities, the results of last year’s Collective Recommendations and this year’s recommendations and finally and perhaps most importantly, to obtain feedback from the Member States regarding your issues that may be taken up by QACE into the RO’s assessment programme.
To do that in more detail I will hand you over to my colleague, Des Gutteridge, the QACE Secretary General.
Preparing for a new construction Vertical Contract Audit

3. QACE 2016 Assessment Programme
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QACE 2016 Assessment Programme
Speaking: Des Gutteridge, QACE Secretary General.
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.
As Klaus has said, my job today is to update you on the results of QACE assessment activity from last year, to talk about the resulting recommendations for the improvement to the RO’s Quality Management Systems. But first let’s be clear, it is the RO’s implementation of their quality management systems and controls that directly effect the standard of surveying and auditing and the ability of the surveyors to get it ‘right first time.
QACE has 4 Assessors, based around the world, who witness and are include in the Accredited Certification Bodies (ACB) audit teams. QACE selects on a risk-based sample, the audits that it will attend. For each RO this is at least one Survey Location and two Vertical Contract Audit (VCA). One for new construction and one for ships in service. Plan Approval and Regional Offices are assessed. Head Office audits are assessed every second year.
A typical Head Office audit

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2016 QACE
Assessments

5. 27/06/2017 Non member assessments HO -­‐ Head Office
VCA -­‐ Vertical Contract Audit
CO -­‐ Control Office
(NC) -­‐ New Construction
PA -­‐ Plan Approval Office (SO) -­‐ Ships in Operation
SL -­‐ Service Location Office
(MEC) -­‐ Materials Equipment Components
Non member assessments

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QACE Assessments 2014
QACE carries out about 30 assessment visits each year, attending the RO’s Accredited Certification Bodies (ACB) ISO 9001:2008 and IACS QSCS audits.
One is a business standard with the principals of continual improvement and process auditing and the other a ‘deep dive’ technical audit including the IACS Technical Resolutions
(example)
QACE describes the marriage of the two standards as ‘two standards more than double the benefits’.

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QACE Assessments

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QACE Assessments

9. Auditing of new and major statutory requirements.
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Auditing of new and major statutory requirements.
Review of Surveyor Monitoring procedure (IACS PR6).
Lessons learnt from major incidents and casualties.
Effective implementation of new procedures.
2016 Collective
Recommendations
In order to drive improvements QACE builds a record of the assessment results over the year. At the end of the year that, and an analysis of the audit finding trends, results in both collective and individual recommendations for the RO’s. The identification of any significant issues that affect the scheme as well as best practices. These are all discussed at the end-of-year End User Workshop and the ACB auditors course in January of each year.
The 2016 Collective Recommendation 1 introduced a focus on testing the RO’s implementation of new requirements and the Rule Development and instructions processes. In 2018 the natural selection is a focus on the implementation of the Ballast Water Management requirements.
Collective Recommendation 2 reflects the QACE concern that most of the RO’s are still unable to demonstrate an overall picture of the strengths and weaknesses of their surveyor force and determine training needs as a result
Collective Recommendation 3 is unfortunately well timed with the recent concerns over VLCC to VLCO conversions, in that there is no requirement for the ROs to carry out an internal investigation to determine and distribute learned lessons in such circumstances. The new revision of the IACS Early Warning Scheme is being tested so that RO’s are alerted to possible issues with ships in their fleet.
Collective Recommendation 4 was designed to bring a focus to the requirement for ROs to transition to the new ISO: risk-based standard, which has been included in the January 2017 IACS Quality System Certification Scheme (QSCS) and the still awaited Fleet Monitoring IACS Procedural Requirement.

10. Audit of remote locations.
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Audit of remote locations.
Exclusion of the early stage of surveys from Vertical Contract Audits.
Closed-loop Audit Focus Area reporting.
Extension of process auditing to RO’s Rule Development
2017 Collective Recommendations
The 2017 Collective Recommendations are contained in Annex C of the QACE 2016 Annual Report which was provided with the session notes.
Collective Recommendation 1 is concerned with testing the RO’s survey locations which are remote from central or regional control to confirm that the survey and auditing practices are effectively and consistently implemented globally.
Collective Recommendation 2 reinforces that Vertical Contract Audits are designed in order that the technical expert auditor can witness the RO’s surveyor during the survey of major parts of the ship’s hull, machinery and statutory provisions. As a result, QACE is issuing a Requirements Notice excluding block inspections from new construction VCAs, requiring that the project has completed plan approval and is at the erection stage and that kick off meetings are excluded from ships in operation VCAs.
Collective Recommendation 3 is designed to support that, if stakeholder’s interests are included as focus areas to the audit programme it is self-evident that those parties should be advised of the results.
To that end, as part of the session notes, QACE asked for a discussion of any potential RO interest areas that could be brought to the audit programme?
Collective Recommendation 4 extends the concept of testing the end-to-end process rather than parts of the organisation.

11. RO’s Strengths & Weaknesses including:
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RO’s Strengths & Weaknesses including:
Follow-up of previous Individual Recommendations.
Trend analysis of audit findings.
The results of recent assessment visits.
The RO’s response to recommendations.
Port State Control record.
The RO’s resources.
Transfer of class.
Individual Recommendations

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August QACE welcomes Indian Register of Shipping to QACE membership
November Christian Breinholt is elected as QACE Director.
January 2017 QACE transitions and achieves ISO 9001:2015 certification
Latest at QACE

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