IQAI International QA Institute - Official Website-

About IQAI

Introduction

International QA Institute (IQAI), a non-profit organization, has been promulgating quality assurance/management systems and training and fostering quality professionals in Japan since its establishment in 1991. IQAI is providing the following services by sending the world top rank QA/QM professionals to the client:

  • (1) Consulting services for Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Management (QM) System establishment,
  • (2) Training courses for the right concepts and methodologies of QA/QM for the effective management
  • (3) Internal Auditor Training,
  • (4) Internal Audits and Conformance Audits, and
  • (5) Auditor and Consultant Training and Qualification.

Besides the above activities, IQAI has been promoting the activities of American Society for Quality (ASQ), especially those of the Quality Audit Division since 1996. In this connection, IQAI is conducting the ASQ certification exams for the genuine quality professionals in Japan as one of the international organizations of ASQ.

Address

IQAI Headquarters
c/o Akio Miura
3-24-14-703 Shimo-meguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0064, Japan
Tel: +81-03-3712-6776, Fax: +81-3-3712-3399

West Japan Branch
c/o Mitsuko Nishihara
2-1 Yayoi-cho, Shunan-city, Yamaguchi, 745-0072, Japan
Tel: +81-834-21-0177, Fax: +81-834-21-0716

Secretariat
c/o Yoshihide Sato
3-24-14-703 Shimo-meguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0064, Japan
Tel: +81-03-3712-6776, Fax: +81-3-3712-3399
e-mail:welcome@iqai.org

ASQ Headquarters
[→ASQ Website: http://www.asq.org/]

Members

43 Regular Members (including Officers)
1 Sustaining Member

(As of April 1, 2012)

Officers

Honorary Chairman Akio Miura
Executive Director – R & D, Chair Mitsuko Nishihara
Director – Planning and Legal Matters Masakatsu Iwasa
Director – Secretariat, Mailing List Naoyuki Kitami
Director – Secretariat Yoshihide Sato
Director – ASQ Certification Exam Promotion Miyuki?Sato
Director – Accounting Takako Hoshiyama
Auditor and Membership Yoshio Nagasawa
Auditor Hidehisa Murashima ?

Background

1991 International QA Institute (IQAI) was established as a non-profit voluntary organization by Akio Miura in October 1991 to cope with the urgent need of fostering ISO 9000 series quality management systems Registrars in Japan and training their Auditors, with cooperation of some of his students as charter members. The motivation was that Akio Miura was nominated by Institute of Quality Assurance (IQA) in UK as the first (and only one even now) ISO Lead Auditor Training Course Instructor in Japan.
1992 through 1993 In 1992, IQAI was nominated as the representative of IQA (present IRCA) in UK for registration of ISO auditors. With this function, IQAI had helped major Registrars in Japan by training their quality system auditors or sending qualified auditors to them, in order to facilitate their certification activities. Among the Registrars backed by IQAI are major international registrars such as LRQA, BVQI, DNV, ABS, SGS, and major Japanese registrars such as JIA-QA, LIA-QA, JHIA-QA, JIC-QA, KHK, JQA, JET, JMAM, and JSA. In conjunction with this, in the period of 1991 to 1993, IQAI also supported the Japan Accreditation Board (JAB) in its starting accreditation and certification schemes by providing guidance and sending several members for its accreditation assessments.

In the meantime, the charter members of IQAI formed a study group in August 1992, called Japan ISO-QA Society (Japan ISO-MS Society after 1995) ? forums for information exchange and workshops on International Standards and management issues for various industrial sectors, and IQAI had supported it since its foundation. Key members of IQAI had played an important role in the activities of all study groups as its Supervisors or Instructors.

1995 through 1996 In September 1995, IQAI was re-organized to strengthen its foundation to cope with the changing global circumstances and social needs in the integrated management system of quality, environment and safety. IQAI has got certified to ISO 9001 by DNV in March 1996, and maintained certification three years until March1999. (The scope of certification was: Provision of Conformance Audits, and Design and Delivery of Courses for Quality Assurance/Management and Auditor Training, and Consulting Services in Quality Assurance/Management System Establishment.)

In August 1996, about one year after re-organization, IQAI was nominated as a representative of the Quality Audit Division (QAD) of American Society for Quality (ASQ) in Japan. At the same time, IQAI has started the ASQ certification examinations for the CQA/CQE/CRE in Tokyo, while promoting the activities of the QAD of ASQ in Japan with Akio Miura as its International Regional Councilor of the QAD.

1997 through 2005 Besides the above activities, IQAI had been attending the plenary meetings of International Auditor and Training Course Accreditation (IATCA), at first as a Registration Agency of IQA in UK, and thereafter as an internationally independent Associate Member voluntarily representing the QAD of ASQ, and submitted numbers of proposals to its Working Groups to establish auditor-related international rules and procedures. Many of such proposals were adopted by the Executive Committee consisting of RAB of the USA, IQA and IRCA of UK, and QSA and JAS-ANZ of Australia. In this connection, in 1997, Akio Miura, Chairman of IQAI, was nominated by IATCA as a member of Consultant Certification Study Group in IATCA, and submitted the proposal of consultant qualification procedure and criteria, developed and implemented by IQAI in 1995 for the establishment of their international rules.

As the Associate Member of IATCA, IQAI had recommended IATCA’s Executive Committee to adopt the ASQ CQA exam for the international auditor qualification, representing the QAD of ASQ and from the internationally independent standpoint (because it was a big issue there that the level of ISO registrar auditors is very low in almost all countries and needed to be raised).

IQAI had also supported the leading members of IATCA, such as RAB, IQA, IRCA,QSA and JAS-ANZ. During the course, IQAI helped Japanese Accreditation Board (JAB) and JRCA (Japanese Auditor Registration Body). For JRCA, IQAI fully helped it get internationally recognized by giving appropriate advice until they finally passed the IATCA‘s peer review.

In 2005, IQAI left IATCA judging that IQAI had fully accomplished its mission in international contribution activities through IATCA, and decided to volunteer only through RAB that had been serving as the chair of the IATCA.

2007 In March 2007, IQAI was re-organized to carry out its volunteering activities more effectively.
2009 In March 2009, IQAI has been registered with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government under the Law of Japan as the Special Non-Profit Organization to accomplish its social mission.

Past Performance

Consulting for Certification to ISO, etc.

IQAI is providing consulting services for establishment and implementation of a QA and management system to various internationally recognized QA/management standards, such as ISO 9000/14000, QS-9000, cGMP of the FDA, HACCP, ASME-NQA-1, API Spec Q1, etc. in the most suitable way to the existing conditions of the client. IQAI has helped more than 150 companies (more than 500 sites of facilities) get certified to such standards. The organizations supported by IQAI range in a variety of industries. Clients of IQAI are in various industries including machinery, heavy/light electrical equipment, electronic devices and components, chemicals, oil refining, petrochemical, paper, textile, pharmaceutical, medical devices, non-ferrous metals, iron and steel, welded steel pipes, telecommunications equipment, optical cables and equipment, measuring and controlling equipment, instrumentation, civil work and engineering, construction, plant engineering, design and engineering, building maintenance services, port agents, trading firms, rental services, and so on. IQAI’s service includes preparation of Quality Manual and company procedures, both in English and Japanese, as requested by the client.

Conformance/Compliance Audits

IQAI is conducting Conformance/Compliance Audits (third party audits) by IQAI qualified auditors to such standards as ISO 9001, QS-9000, TS 16949, API Spec Q1, FDA cGMP, ISO 14000, and other internationally recognized management system standards. IQAI has conducted such audits at more than 100 companies in various industries since 1991.

Training Courses

IQAI Senior Consultants and Instructors, who are the first level genuine professionals in QA and management in Japan, certified as the CQA, CMQ/OE, CQE, CRE, etc. by ASQ, have been conducting various training courses since 1991. All of these courses were developed by IQAI originally, and have been delivered in Japan, USA, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.

Typical training courses are:

  • －Internal Auditor Training Course, Basic (In-house at the client’s site)
  • －Internal Auditor Training Course, Advanced (for those experienced in internal auditing and/or consulting) (In-house at the client’s site)
  • －Essence of Quality Assurance/Management (for all industries, consultants and registrar auditors)
  • －Management System Establishment, Implementation and Maintenance to major international standards and regulations, including ISO 9001/14001/13485/22000, ISO/IEC27001, ISO/TS16949, FDA-cGMP, ASME NQA-1, TS16949, OHSAS 18001, and HACCP.
  • －Key Points to Quality System for Service Industries
  • －Design Control
  • －Product Liability Prevention
  • －Good Instruction Manual Writing Techniques

Sponsoring for ISO Auditor Registration

IQAI has sponsored its members and students in their registration with IRCA in UK (IQA at the time when they started ISO auditors registration), RAB(currently RABQSA International) in USA , and JRCA and EARA in Japan. Through the recommendation of IQAI, about 80 candidates were registered with IRCA and RAB in the period of 1992 to 2000. Many of such auditors are now working for various ISO registrars.

Promoting and Conducting ASQ Certification Exams in Japan

IQAI started to support ASQ in 1996 by conducting its certification exams in Japan for the convenience of candidates living in Japan and adjacent countries. It was because Akio Miura, Chairman of IQAI, was the first and only one ASQ certified person in Japan that could proctor ASQ exams, and no other Japanese organization was able to conduct such exams on behalf of ASQ.

As of May 2009, about 60 persons have passed eight major certification exams of ASQ in total.

Submitting Public Comments to ISO

Key Officers of IQAI have been volunteering for the Standard Committee of the Audit Division of ASQ as the International Regional Councilor of the Division. At the stages of Committee Draft (CD) and Draft International Standard (DIS) of ISO 9001: 2000, IQAI submitted public comments on the key issues of its revision through various channels in IQAI’s international network besides the Standard Committee of the Audit Division of ASQ. As ISO/TC 176 members of various countries used IQAI’s comments for their submission to ISO, about 70% of the IQAI’s proposal for correction was adopted by ISO.