The studio
A small quality consultancy in Seattle that will never sell you a certificate.
WAC Standards Studio is the trading name Wac uses at wac.us.org. It is a consulting business for quality management systems, based at 1325 6TH AVE, SEATTLE, WA 98101. We prepare organisations for the certification audit a third-party certification body carries out, and we write the documented information their systems need. That is the whole business.
The impartiality line
We don't certify you.
We do not issue certificates. A certification body does, and it cannot also be your consultant.The first thing we say on every call
ISO/IEC 17021-1 is the standard certification bodies are accredited against. It bars a body from certifying a management system it helped build. The reasoning is plain: nobody marks their own homework. So if a registrar offers to "help with the documents" inside the audit fee, decline it.
Two things follow for you. We cannot promise a pass, because the auditor decides on the day from what they sample. And we do not pick your certification body. We will explain how to compare quotes and check a body's accreditation scope, and then you choose.
Our side of the line
Gap assessment, documents written from how your people work, internal audits, management review support, a mock stage 2 and help closing nonconformities.
Their side
Stage 1 and stage 2, the nonconformities they raise, the certificate decision, surveillance visits and recertification at the end of the 3-year cycle.
What the studio actually does
Five engagements, one direction: getting a quality management system ready for external assessment. Every one is quoted in writing after a scoping call. Nothing on this site is a binding price.
| Engagement | What you get | Price basis |
|---|---|---|
| Gap assessment | Two days on site and a ledger of findings, clause by clause. You keep the ledger. | Fixed fee per site |
| ISO 9001 implementation | A QMS built from zero around processes you already run, with at least 3 months of records before stage 2. | Fixed fee after a scoping call |
| Audit readiness | A mock stage 2 run the way a certification body runs it, then nonconformity closure. | Day rate, agreed days |
| Documented information | Manual if you want one, procedures, forms and a master list with real revision control. | Per document set |
| Internal audit | Clause 9.2 and 9.3 run to the standard, corrective actions under 10.2 tracked to closure. | Per audit cycle |
ISO 9001:2015 is most of the work. The same Annex SL structure carries us into ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018. For medical device makers we work to ISO 13485:2016 on the quality system itself, which has a mandatory quality manual and more documented procedures than 9001 asks for. For ISO/IEC 27001:2022 we support the documentation only: scope, risk method, Statement of Applicability, policies and records. Configuring firewalls and cloud tenancies stays with your IT people.
The work happens at your plant, lab or office. The studio is where reports get written.
What we refuse to do
The work we turn down
We will not write a procedure for a process you do not run.
- Promise a pass or a certificate dateBoth depend on someone else's auditor. We tell you whether your date is realistic. That is as far as it goes.
- Sell a template kitNo 140-page manual with your logo on the cover. It is the failure we find most often, sitting next to a corrective action log with nothing closed in it.
- Take referral fees from certification bodiesWe advise on choosing one. We are paid by nobody on that list.
- Close a corrective action on "operator retrained"Closure needs evidence the action worked. Until then the line stays open.
- Claim credentials we have not listedThis site names no accreditation, registration or auditor certificate for the studio, because none is claimed.
How a job runs
Floor first, documents after
- Step 1
Scoping call
Forty minutes. Standard, headcount, sites, what already exists and when you want the certification body in. You get a written quote within a week.
- Step 2
Walk the floor
Nothing gets drafted until we have watched the job done, on the shift that does it. If the night shift runs it differently, the document says so.
- Step 3
Draft and redline
The operator or inspector marks up our draft before approval. Their corrections usually outnumber ours.
- Step 4
One ledger line per finding
Clause, evidence seen, gap, owner, date. A supervisor can act on it without calling us.
Reach a person
Who answers, and where
A consultant answers, not a call centre. Calls and email are handled on working days, Pacific time, and inquiries get a reply within two working days. If the line is busy, leave the standard and your audit date on voicemail.
Tell us the standard and the audit date. We will tell you if it holds.
Request a scope1325 6TH AVE
SEATTLE, WA 98101
United States
Open the address in a map service
Call before you come by so someone is in.