ISO 17025 Origin and Its Benefits to Testing & Calibration Organizations

 The international accreditation for testing and calibration centers is ISO 17025 and there are a lot of factors that lead to its formulation. This blog explains the origin of the ISO 17025 certification and how it benefits laboratories. The ISO (International Organization for Standardization) recognized the need to ensure quality assurance services by the testing and calibration laboratories. The purpose was to ensure confidence in the organizations, individuals, and agencies regarding the accuracy of the data produced by the labs after testing and calibrating. Hence, achieving the ISO accreditation by a laboratory shows the trustworthiness of their measurement results and so organizations or agencies using their services can fully rely on them. Designed for this sole purpose, ISO 17025 provides the requirements for establishing the Quality Management System (QMS) and improving the competence of their testing and calibration activities. 


Though getting the accreditation would prove that a lab is able to provide technically accurate and valid data of assessment to its concerned customers, it’s still not clear for many laboratory owners why they actually need the certification. 



Origin of the ISO 17025 Standard 


According to ISO, the ISO 17025 accreditation is an attestation needed by a conformity assessment body to demonstrate its absolute competence in conducting specific assessments and testing activities. Laboratories and calibration bodies that are mainly involved in different testing, assessment, and sampling tasks need to prove their competence through a formal accreditation. Otherwise, it is hard to make the clients or customers availing their services believe that their results are true and accurate. 


Needless to say, the standard demonstrates that a lab’s methods, tools, or equipment of testing, measurement, calibration, and sampling are assured to provide quality results.  The standard assures the quality of the testing and calibration results due to a number of factors.


• It mandates the labs to meet certain requirements for ensuring the competence of employees

• It requires the labs to participate in proficiency tests

• It requires the labs to use certified materials, equipment, and processes

• It calls for continual improvement and maintenance of the equipment

• It requires the labs to check, revise, and renew their processes of measurement and calibration for generating the data


These make the ISO 17025 accreditation a key standard for laboratories to establish their conformity and ensure the quality and exactness of their data. 


Benefits of ISO 17025 for Testing and Calibration Labs


By accrediting with the ISO 17025 standard, the laboratories can realize the following benefits. 


• It gains recognition internationally as well as locally and thereby is able to attract more clients who are in need of calibration and testing services.


• As the clients fully trust the data of test results provided by the accredited lab, they experience a substantial reduction in their costs which they would have otherwise spent on reexamining the products.


• ISO 17025 ensures that the lab has better control over its activities including sampling, testing, calibration, and results/report generation. 


• The managers and personnel of the accredited labs always have better access to updated methods and technologies. This enhances their confidence in producing valid results of their assessment activities. 


• Since the lab proves its proficiency in providing accurate results, the demand for its services increases along with its recognition. It hence sees a positive impact on the revenue with a gradual raise in the number of customers.


• The accreditation validates the non-standard or laboratory’s specific test method and hence ensures the reliability of the results to the customers.

 

Bottom Line 


Needless to say, the ISO 17025 certification is the key requirement for laboratories indulged in testing, sampling, measuring, and calibration of products of other businesses or organizations. It is necessary for them to assure the conformity of their assessment practices and prove that they are competent at providing reliable and accurate results to the clients. The requirements of the standard also highly focus on improving the competence of labs and ensuring the trustworthiness of their evaluation processes, methodologies, and equipment. All these also explain that a laboratory needs the certification to seize its position in the testing and calibration industry and acquire a steady client base. 

Also Read: Top 5 Strategies to Improve Your Internal Quality Audit Score

Contact Details:

Business Name: Compliancehelp Consulting, LLC

Email Id: info@quality-assurance.com

Phone No: 877 238 5855

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