Multi-site Laboratory Accreditation

Multi-site Laboratory Accreditation

L-A-B offers ISO / IEC 17025 accreditation programs for companies with laboratories in multiple locations.  These programs allow a company to hold a single accreditation yet provide unique scopes of accreditations for each accredited site.  This program saves the laboratory both time and money.

Multi-site Laboratories Must Meet the Following Requirements

  • All locations of the laboratory seeking accreditation must utilize the same quality system and quality manual, which must comply in all respects with the requirements of ISO / IEC 17025.  It is acceptable for each location to have some unique quality documents to support the local operations.
  • One corporate quality contact must be allocated for the laboratories.
  • Document fully the relationships between the locations and the extent of interaction (e.g. allocation of testing/calibration work, transfer of samples between locations, movement of technical staff and/or equipment and centralized or otherwise rationalized reporting arrangements). The extent of interaction possible will depend, among other factors, on the commonality of test/calibration and/or sampling methods and of quality control of performance.
  • Have mechanisms in place to assure that inquiries about work in progress are handled efficiently, regardless of any transfer between locations.
  • Assure that reviews of requests, tenders and contracts include appropriate consideration of clients' or potential clients' awareness of a multi-site accreditation status and the implications of this for work undertaken.

Defining Scopes of Multi-site Accreditation

Each accredited location is issued separate certificates and scopes of accreditation for each site with a distinct suffix number.  Scopes issued by L-A-B state clearly that a multi-site accreditation is involved via the numbering system for each scope.  Each individual scope will clearly detail all of the accredited testing / calibration activities performed by each specific laboratory location (whether performed in a permanent laboratory or on site).

Assessment and Accreditation Processes

At the initial assessment, all locations, key activities, and individuals must be reviewed to assure technical competence and compliance to ISO / IEC 17025.  The entire proposed scope is covered with the appropriate technical evaluation through a series of observations, procedural review, interviews, and detailed equipment evaluation.

In many cases follow up assessments will be performed through a sampling of the individual sites.  L-A-B and laboratory will establish a suitable sampling plan based on good statistical practice.  This plan must ensure that a sufficient number of sites and technical personnel are sampled to provide a firm basis for judgments of competence for the organization as a whole.

In some cases it may be feasible to have the various technicians and their equipment, procedures and other requisite documentation brought to one central location. In such cases, the assessor(s) may interview each of the technicians involved in the multi-site accreditation. Otherwise, the assessor will have to visit each of the individuals involved in the multi-site accreditation to ensure that they have the proper equipment, training, and documentation.