ISO 17025

ISO 17025 is an internationally recognised quality standard designed for the scientific community. It is aimed at testing and calibration laboratories and builds on the requirements of ISO 9001 to provide a scientific base to ensure the quality of work supplied by the laboratory. Whilst a certification programme such as ISO 9001 allows a company to certify a building complex or a department, ISO 17025 allows a laboratory to accredit SPECIFIC test methods.

Who is it for?

ISO 17025 is applicable to all testing or calibration laboratories. It provides a roadmap for individual businesses to design a system that works for them.

What are the benefits of ISO 17025?

ISO 17025 certification brings many business benefits:

• Consistent quality: it helps your business provide a consistent product or service
• Quality supply chain: ISO 17025 requires that you qualify your suppliers to ensure a quality supply chain
• Certified work: ISO 17025 differs from ISO 9001 in that it is an accreditation, rather than a certification process. This means that once accredited to ISO 17025 your laboratory can certify its test methods and results.
• Increased customer loyalty: as the customer is getting consistently accurate results, it helps increase customer loyalty
• Increased efficiency: it helps you standardise and better understand your processes and procedures, interrogating them to make sure they are streamlined and optimised
• Saves money: by helping you to understand and optimise your processes, it can help you eliminate inefficiencies and so reduce costs
• Boosts your reputation: it tells your customers, suppliers and business partners that you work to an internationally recognised standard of quality that is externally verified on an annual basis.
• Creates new opportunities: Some industries require their laboratories to be ISO 17025 accredited; achieving the standard can open new markets

The benefits of choosing Havard Quality Solutions to guide you through ISO 17025

• Save time, save money: With a 100% track record in successful first-time certification, we take you efficiently and swiftly through the accreditation process.
• Take away pain: Developing and writing processes to achieve quality accreditation is an involved, complex process. We take away the pain of focusing on the minutiae required for successful accreditation, so you can get on with your job.
• Peace of mind: You can relax, knowing your quality analysis and delivery is in safe hands.

How Havard Quality Solutions can help you achieve ISO 17025

We can undertake the full implementation programme, or we can help you with specific parts of the process. Our bespoke services include:

• Gap Analysis Report: Undertaking a Gap Analysis report against the requirements of the standard and providing you with a report to help you identify where you should focus your effort
• Statistical Quality Control set up: to ensure consistency of your test methods
• Management training: Providing training to upper management to help them understand their obligations to the standard
• Staff training: Providing training to your staff so they understand why the system is being implemented and their role
• Internal Auditor training: for members of staff that you have identified as Internal Auditors for your company
• Implementation: Work with you to formulate/complete your action plan
• Accreditation body liaison: Be the interface between you and the assessor, from initial discussions through the application process to completion of the project
• Assessor audit: Attend the Assessor audit and discuss the findings
• Continual improvement: Work with you to complete any non-conformances that were identified by the external assessor

Already accredited to ISO 17025?

Fantastic! You already have a Quality Management System. But if you don’t have the internal resources to maintain that system, we can help! We can offer an inclusive management programme for your system or we can support your internal staff on a bespoke basis so you can maintain your accreditation in a cost-effective way.

What are the requirements of ISO 17025?