Starting a Calibration Laboratory in State College, PA

Hello and please assist.
Looking to start small and then growing Calibrations Lab in the State College, PA area. Due to issues on Audit, found that most companies find it a pain or do not correctly do gage pins and/or gage blocks. This started me thinking.
Will be ISO and A2LA cert. when I start and ASQ calibrations cert. as well.
Need to know the steps and opinions to start? ISO cert. procedures to start as well as possible backers in this field for start ups. Would be easy to start with cert. equipment at discount and progress into Cap. meters analyzers and so on within short time span, just need to get started and all information and insight I can get.
If anyone has already done this or tried this, Would love to hear your experiences.
Thank you in advance to all who comment.

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Hello:

I am not an expert in this area. The following may or may not help:

"ISO certs" probably is an ISO 17025 accreditation. I would not concern myself with other management system standards for now. Get a copy of ISO 17025 and read it, understand the concepts. A2LA is an accreditation body. You will not get an A2LA cert. You will get an accreditiaton from A2LA - probably for ISO 17025. In other words, you would get an ISO 17025 accreditation from A2LA.

Not sure what ASQ calibarion certs are.

There are many experts on the Elsmar Cove in this area that can help you more than I can.

Regards,

Dirk

Thanks. Sorry, used short lingo and threw in certs. where accredidation should be. Will definately look into the ISO pointed out.
ASQ (American society of Quality)certification for Calibrations Technician is for my own credentials as well as previous school/experience.
Thank you again.

I'll log on later with more stuff. Some initial questions:

1. How long have you been doing calibrations, and what type of equipment?

2. Are you capable in repair/maintenance of equipment?

3. Do you have some existing customers that you could get business from?

4. Where are you going to conduct business?

5. Will this be full-time or part-time?

6. Have you ever owned your own business?

This is a business. Aside from any technical/training, you need to learn some fundamentals of business, including marketing, accounting, Business Law, etc. Not to be an expert, but enough to know how to run your business, and to develop a competent circle of business associates around you.

fortyfour73 said:

Looking to start small and then growing Calibrations Lab:

Click to expand...

Hi,

I have not started a calibrations lab, but I was the Quality Manager for a company Accredited to ISO/IEC Guide 25 (which later was revised to ISO/IEC 17025).

The lab was accredited by A2LA, but that is one of several organizations in the U.S. that can provide this accreditation. The list of of other organizations has been posted several times on this discussion board.

As stated above, purchase a copy of ISO/IEC 17025. It has many specific requirements that you must meet. You will need to determine the Scope of Accreditation. The Scope is a list of types of calibrations, including ranges, and standards that you wish to be accredited to.

A partial list of things that you must do, not counting any marketing and actually obtaining a customer base:

1. Approved signatories
2. Proficiency testing
3. Measurement uncertainty
4. Document control
5. Calibration report that meets the items listed in the standard
6. Internal audits
7. Training records
8. Matrix of who is approved to perform which calibration
9. Equipment maintenance program
10. Reference standards and calibration equipment traceable to national standards
11. Supplier audits and approved supplier list
12. Control of customerr supplied items to prevent damage or deterioration
13. Management review
14. Purchase testing and calibration standards documents. You must keep your standards documents up to date. This can amount to tens of thousands of dollars each year, depending on how broad your Scope is.

You will need a supply of money to pay the employees, buy equipment, purchase calibration of your items and reference standards, overhead expenses, and advertising.

I get the impression that many people look at a calibration or test report and conclude, "that is easy, I could make a lot of money doing that, considering how much they charge" and they have no idea what it takes to provide that service. There have been many posts with people that currently purchase calibrations that want to bring the calibration in-house. They face similar challenges.

You will also need to determine your costs and set your fee schedule. Set it too high, and you will not get too many customers. Set it too low, and you will soon run out of money. In addition to price, customers also require good turn-around times and customer service.

Be prepared to be audited by a large portion of your customers, even if you have the Accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025.

This should be enough to keep you going for a couple of years.

Wes R.