I'm new to the whole TS thing. I've been asked by my department manager to gather some information about calibrating items in our QC Lab. First, does the person doing the in-house calibrations (ie. callipers, micrometers, thickness gages etc...) have to be certified? If so, where could one get the certification? Second, when making a work instruction for the calibration method is there a standard to follow, ie. international or national standard? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,

bam64

Hi Bam64, welcome to the Cove!

TS 16949 requires that you determine the competency requirements of the people doing calibrations. Just like any other position affecting quality, you need to determine what is required and have records demonstrating that people meet the requirements. If you think certified personnel is the way to go, that's fine. If not, you can have people trained by competent individuals inside or outside the company.

As far as work instructions, they can be in any format you want. If you have training done outside, often they will provide instructions that can be adapted into a work instruction. There are probably members here that have examples to share. There are organizations such as GIDEP ( www.gidep.org ) that you can join and get copies of procedures.

Another good source of info is to look at the requirements of ISO 17025 that is referenced in the note in 7.6.3.1. Notice that certification to 17025 is not required, but it should give you a good idea of what a good internal calibration lab might have.

Good luck! :D

BTW, I used to live in Richmond and Berea, KY. What company are you at?

Thanks howste, the information will help alot. I lived in Berea for 35 years (most of my life) and work in Richmond at Kokoku Rubber Inc. I've been here for 12 years. Again, thanks for the infomation, I might have some more questions later on.

bam64

A good friend of mine, Danny Scholes used to work at Kokoku. I worked at Tokico in Berea for about 5 years. You may want to ask them if they have calibration instructions - they should be in the phone book. Most of their calibrations are done in-house. Charlie Friend (assuming he's still there) would be a good person to ask.