Laboratory accreditation
Laboratory accreditation is one of the important mechanisms for providing customers with confidence in the quality and competence of the work that a laboratory can perform. Accreditation means official recognition of the laboratory’s ability to meet customers’ requirements in the field of tests, measurements, or research, as well as its technical competence in performing certain types of tests and measurements.
The main purpose of laboratory accreditation is to ensure unity of measurement and mutual recognition of the results of measurements, testing, and research. If a laboratory is accredited in a particular field of work, it means that its results are accurate and reliable.
Laboratory accreditation provides a number of benefits. These advantages are related to the marketing position of the laboratory, the internal organization of work, the interaction with customers and consumers of laboratory services.
The main advantages that laboratory accreditation provides are:
guarantees for customers and consumers to provide a quality service in the area where the laboratory is accredited;
Continuous improvement of activities through regular inspections by the accreditation body;
Expansion of market share due to the recognition of the laboratory results by the market participants;
reducing the time required to prove laboratory competence;
Improvement of personnel qualification and competence through regular inspections by the accreditation body.
Laboratory accreditation is important for the laboratory itself from the point of view that this procedure allows to determine the degree of its compliance with the established standards and accepted norms of work. It becomes especially important for own laboratories of enterprises, which are created for specific tasks of these enterprises.
Laboratory accreditation by type of laboratory
Laboratory accreditation may differ depending on what kind of work the laboratory performs, and for what purposes the laboratory was created. Not all laboratories require accreditation for their assigned tasks. Generally, accreditation is required for those laboratories whose results must be recognized by other market participants or the professional community.
Such laboratories include:
testing laboratories;
testing laboratories
Analytical laboratories.
Testing laboratories are laboratories that deal with various types of products, materials, and media. The main purpose of laboratories is to test samples (products, materials or environmental elements) for compliance with the parameters established in regulatory documents. For the most part, testing laboratories operate in the manufacturing sector. Accreditation of testing laboratories allows to ensure that test results are recognized by consumers of products, materials or environments. The concept of “consumers” in this case is quite broad. Consumers can be divisions of an enterprise (for the production laboratory), end users of products, the state and society as a whole (for an independent laboratory).
Verification laboratories are the laboratories which solve the tasks of ensuring the uniformity of measurements. The main purpose of these laboratories is to create guarantees of accuracy and reliability of measurement results. Verification laboratories work with various types of measuring equipment and instruments, as well as methods of measurements. Accreditation of a verification laboratory guarantees conformity of indications of measuring instruments and equipment with established standards and measures, which in turn ensures recognition of measurement results.
Analytical laboratories are laboratories that perform research tasks. They, like testing laboratories, work with different types of products, materials and media, but the focus of the laboratory is different. An analytical laboratory must identify the elemental composition of submitted samples and establish quantitative values of the elements. Accreditation of analytical laboratories helps to ensure that the elemental composition of the samples under examination can be determined reliably. This is necessary for the recognition of research results by other participants of economic activity.
If laboratory results do not require recognition by other economic operators or the professional community, then the laboratory may not be accredited. In particular, such types of laboratories may include training laboratories (at educational institutions) or laboratories that solve highly specialized problems (scientific laboratories).
Laboratory accreditation for inspection methods
There are quite a number of control methods, tests and investigations in the technical field. Many of them are used in laboratory practice. Laboratory accreditation may depend on the methods that are needed to obtain the results of measurements or research.
All methods used for control, testing and research can be divided into two large groups. The assignment of methods to one group or the other depends on the condition of the specimens being examined after the control, test, or examination.
These groups include:
destructive methods;
Non-destructive methods.
Destructive methods imply that after control or study the further use of samples becomes impossible. The sample is subjected to various types of influences that change the original state of the object under study. It becomes impossible to repeat tests, controls or investigations on the same specimen. This leads to specific requirements for the organization and conduct of tests, control or research, which in turn affects the accreditation of the laboratory for destructive methods.
Non-destructive methods allow multiple examinations, tests or measurements of the same specimen by the same parameter(s). The sample remains suitable for further work. These methods impose other requirements on the organization and conduct of research, inspection or testing. Accreditation of the laboratory for non-destructive methods has its own characteristics different from the destructive methods.
These groups of methods make up the scope of laboratory accreditation. The laboratory can be accredited for one group or for two groups of methods at the same time. In this case the laboratory accreditation scope always indicates the specific methods that can be used by the certified laboratory. Depending on the type of activity of the laboratory the composition of methods varies. Usually, testing and analytical laboratories are accredited by methods from both groups. Verification laboratories are accredited for non-destructive methods.
Laboratory accreditation systems
Depending on the objectives and scope of work, laboratory accreditation may be conducted in one or more accreditation systems. Laboratory accreditation is performed at the level of regional, national, or international systems. This gives recognition to the laboratory’s results in broader areas of economic activity.
Each accreditation system has its own requirements, criteria, and procedures for laboratory accreditation. However, most accreditation systems use unified international standards for laboratory accreditation. This simplifies the procedure for the recognition of laboratory results.
There are agreements between the national accreditation systems of many countries on the recognition of accreditation results, which allows laboratories to carry out their activities at the international level. In the Republic of Tajikistan laboratory accreditation is carried out in the accreditation system “National Center for Accreditation”.
The most well-known and recognized organizations for laboratory accreditation at the international and regional levels are:
ILAC (International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation) – International Laboratory Accreditation Organization. This organization is an agreement signed by the accreditation bodies of more than seventy countries. The purpose of this agreement is to ensure recognition of laboratory accreditation results of the participating countries;
APAC (Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation) is an accreditation organization of Asia-Pacific countries. This is a regional accreditation organization. The members of this organization include a large number of countries of Southeast Asia. The purpose of this agreement is the recognition of the results of accreditation of laboratories of countries – members of the agreement;
As a rule, participants of these organizations (agreements) are national accreditation bodies or authorized organizations. Accreditation of a laboratory in one of the national systems may mean recognition in these international and regional agreements, but not always. Sometimes accreditation by authorized organizations with the right to conduct accreditation on behalf of these associations is required.
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