14 september 2017

Laboratories accreditation

The publication of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 is expected by December 2017

The publication of ISO/IEC 17025:2017, the new international standard for the accreditation of testing and calibration laboratories is expected by the end of this year. The delay compared to the the planned deadline is due to the decision of ISO/CASCO/WG 44 to release the Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) – which is an optional but not unusual step, when technical considerations on the first draft are numerous and relevant.

Laboratories will have to adapt to a standard that without substantially modifying the technical aspects of the current edition, articulates differently its four chapters: Structural requirements, Resource requirements, Process requirements and Management requirements.
The new standard, in other words, mantains the original structure by inserting some modifications that meet the stakeholders' needs.

In the Declaration of Conformity, the concept of decision rule introduces, for example, greater transparency towards the customer. Each laboratory responsible for a declaration of conformity will be required to establish its decision-making rules in advance and to communicate these rules to the customer during the contract review.

The new standard also gives greater emphasis to concepts of impartiality and competence. The document precises that competence lies in the activities of “sampling, testing and calibration” for which the laboratory has adequate resources, referring both to staff and equipment, premises, reagents, materials and reference samples. Only for these activities the laboratory can declare to comply with the standard, thus excluding those for which it needs external supply.

For companies, the standard is certainly an interesting novelty, as it enables them to choose their own labs with more reliability.
Numerous factors come into play in this choice. With regard to equipment, for instance, it is good to know not only what machinery are available, but also the detection limits of chemical instrumental set. The suggestion, in this respect, is to always visit the laboratory which you plan to collaborate with, in order to obtain a list of the avalable equipment and  - what's more important - of accredited tests.

«Being an accredited laboratory is a necessary but not sufficient condition», says the president of Brachi Testing Services Primo Brachi. « Another relevant index is the list of accredited tests, in both cases when the accrediting body is an independent organization or a retailer with its own accreditation system. Knowing the number and type of accredited tests is not a purpose in itself, but a proof of the seriousness and level of competence achieved». 

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