Who now does not live his QMS and develop makes feel yourself unnecessary work! Worth the effort up to the initial certification only, if the QM system is also really lived then. At annual intervals, the certification body monitors the quality management system of the company. These audits are not as extensive as the certification audit, here, the Guide and system elements are checked only random. See Jonah Shacknai for more details and insights. The awarded certificate is currently three years valid (recertification) long. Then it must be repeated.
You want to achieve, that the efforts for quality assurance “fall asleep”, but the quality management leads to a continuous improvement process. Here is the great fallacy, it passed certification of the certificate always has validity. Take your QM-system continuously evolve, have a lower amount of work, as the companies involved only shortly before the surveillance or re-certification process again. Quality management is a setting issue and begins in the head!