What is ISO 17025?
ISO/IEC 17025:2017 specifies the general requirements for the competence, impartiality and consistent operation of laboratories. It is applicable to all organizations performing laboratory activities, regardless of the number of personnel.
Laboratory customers, regulatory authorities, organizations, and schemes using peer-assessment, accreditation bodies, and others use ISO/IEC 17025:2017 in confirming or recognizing the competence of laboratories.
WHO IS ISO/IEC 17025 FOR?
ISO/IEC 17025 is useful for any organization that performs testing, sampling or calibration and wants reliable results. This includes all types of laboratories, whether they be owned and operated by government, industry or, in fact, any other organization. The standard is also useful to universities, research centers, governments, regulators, inspection bodies, product certification organizations and other conformity assessment bodies with the need to do testing, sampling or calibration.
Why is Laboratory Management System important for you?
The 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 is 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.
Benefits of ISO/IEC 17025 Laboratory Management System
By becoming an ISO 17025 certified, organization will be able to:
- Improve their reputation
- Create new business connections
- Gain a competitive advantage
- Increase laboratory effectiveness
- Offer proficiency in improving work processes
- Offer more reliable and efficient lab testing and results
- Achieve customer reliability