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Posts Tagged ‘ISO/IEC 17025 Audit Checklist’

ISO standards touch almost all aspects of daily life, and work for organizations large and small. ISO/IEC 17025 is the international quality standard for testing and calibration laboratories. Laboratories use ISO/IEC 17025 to implement a quality system aimed at improving their ability to consistently produce valid results. Labs must hold this accreditation as it is a kind of certificate of their technical competence, nationally and globally. ISO/IEC 17025 Audit Checklist is an important tool that helps laboratories achieve ISO/IEC 17025 certification in an easier, faster and cost-effective way.

An overview of ISO/IEC 17025 Audit Checklist

In the entire ISO 17025 Audit documentation kit, the best part is ISO 17025 Audit checklist. Do you know why it is so? This is because, ISO/IEC 17025 checklist is:

• prepared by industry experts having rich experience of 25+ years
• meant to verify mandatory system implementation points
• completely customizable
• an exhaustive list of more than 500 questions.

Why is ISO/IEC 17025 Audit Checklist important?

ISO 17025 audit is meant for checking the competence of your laboratory to consistently produce valid results. ISO/IEC 17025 Audit Checklist is an indispensable part of the ISO audit of your laboratory. It is a useful tool that helps you efficiently and timely conduct audit in order to get ISO/IEC 17025 certification for your laboratory.

Preparing for an ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation audit is demanding, especially if it is your first audit. Even if you have had prior experience of ISO 17025 audit, you will be a little stressed and anxious about the outcome. ISO 17025 audit checklist plays here a vital role to alleviate your tension and make the audit an enjoyable experience for you and your organization.

When ISO auditors come to your laboratory they will ask for a number of documented information about your quality management system, processes and their implementation. If you have a readymade ISO 17025 audit checklist, then it will help you prepare for the audit in a well-organized manner. Conversely, auditors also find it easy to systematically conduct audit by referring to audit checklist, as it minimizes the chances of any lapse in collecting and auditing the documents.

ISO 17025 audit checklist will eliminate the eleventh-hour rush during or before audit as you can pre- organize all the necessary information/ documents in folders, binders, and (or) in your computer/laptop at the place of audit meetings.

Remember, in any audit, your first impression matters. If all the documents are readily available, it indicates that your organization/laboratory is professional and well-organized.  Auditors, on the other side, will also be able to exhibit professionalism if they have audit checklist ready in their hands.

Benefits of ISO/IEC 17025 Audit Checklist

The three main benefits of using ISO17025 audit checklist are that it:

1.    Saves time
Having information readily available is a huge time saver. Collecting documented information before audit and having them readily available for auditor will not only reduce the amount of time spent on your assessment but also make you look professionally and well prepared. ISO/IEC 17025 Audit Checklist will help save time for collecting all types of documented information that auditors would ask for.

2.    Reduces costs
The less time it takes to complete your assessment, the lower your assessment fees will be. You may be able to save several thousand rupees/ dollars by expediting the assessment process. Additionally, you will be less stressed and able to focus on the assessment.

3.    Reduces chance of deficiencies
Additionally, your preparation efforts will make you frantically searching for various documented information. This will put you under pressure causing you to deliver your auditors incomplete or incorrect information and giving them extra time to dig deeper into your documents, records, and processes and find more deficiencies. Using checklist would likely prevent your assessor from finding additional deficiencies. With the checklist in hand, you can preselect records that are free from mistakes.  Thus you would attract fewer citations and deficiencies and you will be at advantage in the assessment.

Conclusion

ISO/IEC 17025 Audit Checklist is a must have for testing and calibration laboratories seeking ISO 17025 certification. It is also useful for those laboratories which are looking for re-certification. Here, we have just given you a glimpse of what an ISO 17025 certification audit is and how ISO/IEC 17025 Audit Checklist can ease your process of getting certified.  In a nutshell using the ISO 17025 audit checklist can make the path of ISO/IEC 17025 certification easier for you by saving your time and cost and reducing the  chance of deficiency.