ISO/IEC
17025 was first issued in 1999 by the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).
It is the single most important standard for calibration and testing
laboratories around the world. Laboratories that are accredited to this
international standard have demonstrated that they are technically competent
and able to produce precise and accurate test and/or calibration data.
ISO
17025 is the main international standard for general requirements for the
competence of testing and calibration laboratories. ISO/IEC 17025:2017 is the
most recent version of ISO 17025, updated from 2005. In major countries, ISO/IEC 17025 is the
standard most labs must hold accreditation in order to be deemed technically
competent. There are many commonalities
with the ISO 9001 standard, but ISO/IEC 17025 is more specific in requirements
for competence, and applies directly to those organizations that produce
testing and calibration results and is based upon more technical principles
producing many benefits for laboratories.
This
international ISO 17025 standard is applicable to all or any laboratory
regardless of size or the extent of the scope of testing and calibration
practices. It’s employed by laboratories to develop their management system for
quality, body and technical operations.
Overall,
labs use ISO/IEC 17025 to implement a quality management system (QMS), with the
goal of improving their ability to be consistent with producing valid
results. It is also the basis for
accreditation from an accreditation body. Since the standard is about
competence, accreditation is simply the formal recognition of a demonstration
of that competence. A prerequisite for a lab to become accredited is to have a
documented QMS. The common contents of the quality manual follow the outline of
the ISO/IEC 17025 standard.
There
are many commonalities with the ISO 9000 standard, but ISO/IEC 17025 is more
specific in requirements for competence and applies directly to those
organizations that produce testing and calibration results and is based on
somewhat more technical principles. Laboratories use ISO/IEC 17025 to implement
a quality system aimed at improving their ability to consistently produce valid
results. It is also the basis for accreditation from an accreditation body.
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