ISO/IEC 17025 or National Equivalent?

[Sandra Shepard]

Is there a national equivalent to ISO/IEC 17025 as referenced in IOS/TS 16949:2002? Is there such an equivalent standard in, say, Mexico? Some of the independent calibration labs we use there are not 17025 accredited, nor do they intend to be? We will probably have to drop them, but I wanted to explore the possibilities of the "equivalent" provision stated in para. 7.6.3.2.

 

[p_tww]

Yes, there is. In China, the equivalent national standard is GB/T15481.
I am not sure the situation in Mexico.
You may find such wordings in TS2 standard" external lab could be either accredited to ISO/IEC17025(or national equivalent) or acceptable to the customer"".
If your subcontracted calibration agency is impossible for registration to ISO/IEC17025, you may ask all your customer's permission.

 

[Andrew Shepherd - 2010]

I have always understood the ANSI-Z540 Standard to be the US version this was the case back when it was guide 25 anyway.

 

[SteelWoman]

Don't forget the other "out" is to move your calibrations in-house. Weigh the costs of outside calibration versus the cost of getting someone in-house trained to do them. We were having everything BUT rockwell machines calibrated in-house until recently, when we paid to have someone go get trained to do it. The training cost was like 1/4th of what a SINGLE outside calibration cost! No brainer

 

[Diana Cadwalader]

What about "customer approved second party assessment"?????

Question - - Last year AIAG cancelled all classes to get the certificate to do the second party assessments - - yet the option is still in the standard. Anyone know if there is a training/certification course available that would approve you to audit your cal suppliers to this standard??

 

[howste]

I'm not aware of any "certification" that allows you to do this. The key is that it says "customer approved." If you can show your customer(s) that you are competent to audit to 17025, and they approve you to do it, then you can.

 

[hlozano - 2005]

Sandra

Try "Entidad Mexicana de Acreditación (EMA)" in your yahoo search engine....

Herbert

 

[D.Scott]

What about "customer approved second party assessment"?????

Question - - Last year AIAG cancelled all classes to get the certificate to do the second party assessments - - yet the option is still in the standard. Anyone know if there is a training/certification course available that would approve you to audit your cal suppliers to this standard??

Diana - you are referring to the 2pCP program through AIAG. There are no more training classes offered but the program continues in effect. Once the supplier is audited and approved, they are placed on the AIAG registry. There are a limited number of approved auditors still available for this program (I am one) but alas, they no longer give the classes and will approve no more auditors.
I am not familiar with the program Howste is referring to but the customer is the one you have to please so if they say it is all right, I guess it is. This will not however allow for inclusion on the 2pCP registry and would require each customer to approve the lab.
Dave

 

[Graeme]

I doubt than may countries have "national equivalents" -- most use the ISO standards, sometimes with a slight change to the numbering. (For example, Europe adds "EN" at the front of the number.) A quick look in ANSI's search engine NSSN (www.nssn.org) shows at least seven different organizations with versions of ISO/IEC 17025:1999. (But not Mexico.) I believe these are all translations of the ISO document. Developing a standard takes a long time and costs a lot of money, so few really want to re-invent what has already been done.

(By the way, ANSI/NCSL Z540-1-1994 was never equivalent to ISO Guide 25. Z540-1 only addresses the application of ISO 9002:1994 to a calibration activity, and the added requirements of MIL-STD-45662A. It does not address the area of technical competence to do the work, which is a core feature of Guide 25 and its successor, ISO/IEC 17025.)