IRIS - International Railway Standard

IRIS (International Railway Industry Standard) is based on the internationally recognised standard ISO 9001. IRIS supplements ISO 9001 with specific characteristics of the rail industry.

What is IRIS?

IRIS (International Railway Industry Standard) is based on the internationally recognised standard ISO 9001.

IRIS supplements ISO 9001 with specific characteristics of the rail industry. IRIS expands on project management, change management and design among other things. IRIS has been developed by the rail industry. Manufacturers such as Siemens, Alstom, Ansaldo Breda and Bombardier, together with their key suppliers, have had a large input to writing the standard.

IRIS has been developed as an industry-specific standard similar to those already existing in the automotive, aviation and food industries. IRIS is promoted and administered by UNIFE (Association of European Railway Industries).

IRIS is intended to apply to all direct and indirect ancillary industries (manufacturers of system construction parts and individual components), operators as well as manufacturers of rail-mounted vehicles.

Benefits of IRIS

The advantages:

• Globally recognised certificate

• Integrated certification to both ISO 9001 and IRIS

• IRIS certified companies are included in a UNIFE data base, which is to be used by the buyers at all major railway industry manufacturers

• Saving of time, costs and expenditure.

• LRQA is certified by UNIFE to provide IRIS certification. As IRIS shares the ISO 9001 platform with other standards, integrated audits with those standards (ISO 9001, ISO/TS 16949, ISO 14001) are possible.

LRQA's services

LRQA offers a number of services relating to IRIS certification:

• an optional GAP analysis to assess your existing quality management system and let you know how it stacks up against the IRIS requirements

• an optional preliminary assessment to determine your readiness for a full assessment, identify areas where further work is required, and agree on an assessment timetable

• a document review to discuss in detail matters relating to quality system documents and paperwork

• initial assessment to evaluate the quality system in action and its conformity with IRIS

• surveillance visits to ensure your system continues to meet the requirements of IRIS.