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Session Topic: 5A, Accreditation Session

   

Paper Title: Implementing Change from ISO/IEC Guide 25 to ISO/IEC 17025

   

Date & Time: TUESDAY, August 6, 2002

 

2:30 - 4:00pm PARALLEL SESSIONS - SESSION 5

   

Speaker: S.L. Sarnot Ministry of Information Technology, India

Email: sarnot@mit.gov.in

   

The laboratory accreditation bodies world over had formulated their general criteria for accreditation of testing and calibration laboratories based on ISO/IEC Guide 25:1990. The guide has now been replaced by a new standard ISO/IEC 17025:1999. The compliance to this standard demonstrates that the testing/calibration laboratories operate a quality system in line with ISO 9000, are technically competent and are able to generate technically valid results. For change over to the new standard the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) has formulated a transition plan that desires that all laboratory accreditation bodies should ensure that the accredited testing and calibration laboratories should upgrade their quality system for compliance to ISO/IEC 17025 before December 2002. The customers' demand for high quality of testing and calibration services globally has lead to the growth of laboratory accreditation activities. Thus there are large numbers of accredited laboratories that will have to undergo the above transition. The new standard has elaborated on some of the existing requirements and modified certain requirements of guide 25 in addition to stipulating certain additional requirements. The focus of the new standard is on customer satisfaction and an approach to prevention of non-conformance in laboratory's operations. So additional requirements viz. Review of requests, tenders and contract, Service to clients, Validation of laboratory developed methods, Control of non conforming testing and calibration work and Corrective and Preventive actions have been stipulated. The estimation of measurement uncertainty of test results as stipulated by new standard could be a challenging task for testing laboratories. The laboratories therefore have to evolve practices and procedures for implementation of these requirements and incorporate them in their quality manual and related documentation. STQC has a chain of accredited testing and calibration laboratories that are in the process of incorporating changes in their quality system for compliance to new standard. The paper specifies the transition strategies and is based on experiences of problems faced and how they have been overcome.

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