ISO 17025 accreditation is the only way to prove that your laboratory meets all quality control requirements. ISO 17025 is an important standard that helps laboratories harmonize procedures and methods. This harmony facilitates coordination between the laboratory and other organizations.
Historically, standardization of laboratory activities began with ISO / IEC Guide 25, published in 1990. In 1999, the first ISO 17025 standard based on ISO / IEC Guide 25 was published and revised in 2005 and 2017.
What is ISO17025?
ISO 17025: it is the latest standard for “General laboratory testing and calibration”. Applies to all laboratories and sets practice requirements to increase confidence in delivering reliable and efficient test, calibration and sampling results.
ISO 17025: it contains five main requirements that lead to the accreditation of laboratories. The following figure shows the requirements for each standard. The ISO 17025 control system requirements are under ISO 9001. Companies or laboratories can obtain ISO 9001 certification without ISO 17025 certification.
What are the main benefits?
First of all, the ISO 17025 Accreditation applies to all organizations that carry out laboratory activities, regardless of the size or sector of their actions. ISO 17025 accreditation has many benefits.
Above all, it guarantees the quality of the product and thus the trust of its partners and consumers. The ISO 17025 standard is internationally recognized and ensures an improved brand image for the laboratory. Identifying confidentiality and fairness in the laboratory is also a source of achievement in a highly competitive market.
By continuously improving activities, especially established processes and protocols, and applying a risk-based approach, the laboratory can always optimize the cost of activities. Existing protocols have been systematically updated to adapt, for example, to technological advances.
Purpose-based procedures, protocols and activities require appropriate documentation and traceability. Optimal documentation and data management will ensure laboratory stability and results, making operators more independent and accountable.
All processes and procedures are reviewed and revised frequently. This ensures that the laboratory is up to date in regulatory supervision and is facing technological developments. Laboratory audit and protocol reviews increase the reliability of results, tests, and calibrations.
This standard emphasizes the need for well-trained staff. Therefore, employers supervise training and allow employees to update their knowledge and develop new skills. By motivating employees and giving them the opportunity and means to create, employee satisfaction and quality of life at work can be significantly improved.
How can digital tools help achieve ISO 17025 certification?
With the advent of digital technology in our company, the way processes and protocols are implemented has changed. This allows organizations to stand out from the competition and improve their day-to-day efficiency through time-consuming management tasks.
It is very important to document all processes, protocols and procedures with help of ISO 17025 Consultant. A digital platform with an electronic document management system (EDM) can significantly reduce “business processing”, distribution and duplication. Consultant always works with the latest version of the ISO 17025 Templates.
ISO 17025 Help you set all the requirements that you need and integrate for necessary documents. In addition, the self-evaluation module ensures that everything is done correctly before the certification audit. You can configure the classification in a custom grid format to meet all the standard’s basic criteria.
