What is ISO 17025 Laboratory Accreditation
All around the globe ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation is the only most significant standard for calibration and testing purposes of laboratories. Basically the term of accreditation delivers the underlying guarantee that an organisation is following those standards that are acknowledged at an international level. For the purpose of standardization and testing laboratories ISO/IEC 17025 is the most recognized standard in this aspect. ISO 17025 laboratory accreditation is a voluntary, third party-reviewed procedure that certifies the quality management system of a lab is carefully assessed on a consistent basis to verify its persistent technical proficiency and compliance with its standard.
Importance of ISO 17025 Laboratory Accreditation
There is no doubt in the fact that the results of laboratory test have a huge effect on a lot of aspects in our daily lives: health maintenance, safe drinking water, food safety, environmental analysis, being responsible for energy utilization, mineral investigation and numerous manufacturing procedures. A lot of people from diverse fields count on the ability of laboratories to provide those results on the basis of which significant choices are made. By means of accreditation the confidence of public is increased in those test results. There is an increasing trend of regulators and suppliers calling for laboratory test results being accredited to the standard of ISO/IEC 17025. Overall provisions for the capability of testing and calibration laboratories stated in ISO/IEC 17025 are considered as the main ISO standard applied by calibration and testing laboratories.
In the majority of cases, ISO/IEC 17025 is the standard considered as valid in most developed countries for which maximum labs need to have accreditation so that they can be considered competent with technical potential. It offers complete assurance that if contamination is there exceeding the defined perimeter of finding, then in that case it will be recognized and known as “positive”. Those laboratories that fail to fulfil this standard can say a “negative” just because they are incapable to discover the contamination, not for the reason that it is absent. It can happen that their methods may be completely insufficient. There is no value of an investigation except it meets the thorough requirements of the different regulating organisations.
Furthermore, under the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025, the proficiency of a laboratory is guaranteed by means of an on-site evaluation process as well as involvement in valid programs for Proficiency Testing. The on-site evaluation process is a detailed analysis of the management system and quality system of a laboratory. Each and every component of quality system covered in ISO 9001 certification is addressed as well. The objective of this on-site evaluation process is to validate that the laboratory is technically competent of generating correct, observable and reproducible data. In order to confirm the laboratory keep up their competencies this procedure is repeated at regular intervals. It is an extremely thorough procedure led by a group of technical professionals from an Accreditation Entity. ISO 17025 accredited laboratories have proved that they are skilled and capable to create defined and correct data of test and calibration.
Benefits of ISO 17025 Laboratory Accreditation
In addition to that, there are lots of benefits by ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation. It is quite helpful for us in reducing risk as it certifies that our customers are selecting a lab which is competent enough and has got a comprehensive quality system at their disposal. As a customer it allows them to not become a victim of expensive retesting, which boosts their assurance in the company product by guaranteeing that it has been carefully assessed by an autonomous, experienced testing or calibration laboratory that has been evaluated by a third party without any biasedness.
It is an obvious verity that when the range of accreditation is as great as a company lab’s, it turn out to be exemplified within the entire processes of a laboratory. The staff working in that lab has a strong alertness and responsiveness of all the numerous accreditation necessities. It grows into a natural instinct to apply the requirements of quality in the every aspect of laboratory work, even in those procedures and practices that don’t fall under the requirements of the accreditation umbrella. Eventually, the clients of an accredited laboratory get valuable services from this strong assurance to quality standards.
If you are looking to implement ISO/IEC 17025 in your laboratory, then contact us today for a free consultation on how we can assist you with the project.
