IRIS - International Railway Industry Standard

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Certification of management systems according to IRIS (International Railway Industry Standard)

With regard to the specific requirements of the railway industry for quality management systems of contractors and their harmonisation, the requirements of standard ISO 9001:2008 have been supplemented by the international working group of experts for the sector of the
railway industry (UNIFE), and issued summarily as the IRIS standard. The working group, initiated by UNIFE (Association of the European Rail Industry) is supported by operators, systems integrators and manufacturers of equipment for railways.

IRIS specifies the requirements for the quality management system of manufacturers of components for the railway industry. It covers within the full scope the requirements of ISO 9001:2008 and the principles of ISO 9004:2009 and other specific conditions for quality management systems which are required by integrators and operators on railways.

It is used during certification for independent assessment of the capability of an organisation to meet the requirements of the technical specification of IRIS, customers, requirements of the prescriptions and own requirements stipulated for effective functioning of all processes,
and for constant improvement of the quality management system.

The standard also contains instructions for its practical application

• Contractors need not publish sensitive information about their business. The results of the audits are confidential and protected;
• Approval of certification bodies for performance of certification is clear and transparent, and UNIFE has acknowledged only a very limited number of highly qualified certification authorities to be eligible for these purposes;
• The scope of the audit is defined precisely according to the size of the organisation and the number of branches;
• IRIS is based on the structure of ISO 9001 and supplemented with requirements specific for the needs of the railway industry, such as project management within the framework of design and development, risk management, RAMS, LCC

The IRIS standard contains

• Mandatory requirements expressed by the word “must”
• Recommended requirements for increasing the level of development of the system expressed by the word “should”

Methodology of assessment

• The results of the audit are evaluated according to the level of fulfilment, this does not represent an evaluation on the principle of good/bad.
• Certain requirements have “knock out” status, i.e. if not met this results in the impossibility of conducting the audit itself.
• An evaluation scale of 0-4 is used for measuring the level of development.

Benefits of certification of quality management system according to IRIS

• Successful implementation of IRIS creates a win-win situation for all parties involved, manufacturers of equipment, systems integrators, operators and business partners. The outputs of the integrated system work for all;
• Recognition of certification according to IRIS by foreign customers;
• Preference of prevention of defects and reduction of variability and losses in chain of supply;
• Identification, management and constant improvement of processes implemented within the organisation (processes focusing on product development, purchasing processes, processes of maintenance and servicing and management processes);
• Application of modern methods and tools for management of organisation and quality of products provided;
• Guarantee of stability of manufacturing process, thus also guaranteeing stable and high quality of products provided to customers;
• Demonstration of expediency, efficiency and effectiveness of introduced quality
• management system by independent third party;
• Objectivity and transparency are guaranteed through the use of approved and independent certification body recognised by the railway industry;
• The IRIS certificate replaces individual audits by the other party from at least 4 of the leading manufacturers (Alstom Transport, Ansaldobreda, Siemens Transportation systems a Bombardier Transportation)

Offer of CQS services

Certification of quality management systems for Railway Industry according to IRIS is carried out by our IQNET partner  DQS Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Zertifizierung von Managementsystemen GmbH according to using  DQS procedures, using CQS auditors and issuing a  DQS certificate to our customers.

Application for certification

If you are interested in certification according to IRIS, please fill in the request form in the main navigation.