TS 16949 certification and recently purchased offsite laboratory

[Sean Kelley]

My company recently purchased another company. The other company has a piece of lab equipment we would like to use for analysis. It is a very expensive piece of equipment that we would rather not have to buy or pay an outside lab for the results. My dilemna is that this part of the company is ISO 9001:2000 and QS 9000 certified. We are TS 16949:2002 with plans of them being a part of our certificate by next summer. Do we need to get their lab certified to ISO 17025 or is there a way we can use them?

 

[p_tww]

My company recently purchased another company. The other company has a piece of lab equipment we would like to use for analysis. It is a very expensive piece of equipment that we would rather not have to buy or pay an outside lab for the results. My dilemna is that this part of the company is ISO 9001:2000 and QS 9000 certified. We are TS 16949:2002 with plans of them being a part of our certificate by next summer. Do we need to get their lab certified to ISO 17025 or is there a way we can use them?

Hi, Sean

you could ask them registered to ISO17025 or you just explain to your customer and get their agreement for usage of this Lab, better to ask all the related customer.

 

[Teri - 2011]

If it is your company and includes in your scope the use of this machine, you don't need ISO 17025. We actually use a sister companies lab for work, they have a seperate QS cert (we are TS), we included the machines (lab) in our lab scope, showed training records for the people using, and it was no problem.

 

[p_tww]

If it is your company and includes in your scope the use of this machine, you don't need ISO 17025. We actually use a sister companies lab for work, they have a seperate QS cert (we are TS), we included the machines (lab) in our lab scope, showed training records for the people using, and it was no problem.

If the company is under the your organisation structure, agreed.
but if it's your sister company, you had to explain something to your customer.

 

[Teri - 2011]

Explain What?

Our people use the test equipment, it is on our lab scope, we maintain the training records and calibration records. It's just not physically at this location.

(We only use this machine once a year at valiadation, or at PPAP time).

 

[p_tww]

Explain What?

Our people use the test equipment, it is on our lab scope, we maintain the training records and calibration records. It's just not physically at this location.

(We only use this machine once a year at valiadation, or at PPAP time).

you may know Lab control not only required lab scope, competence requirements/evidence, equipment status, it also requried lab policy/implementation procedures etc.
If it was not under your organistion structure, and only under some other QS/TS certified company. You have to explain to your customer the situation, such as why you trust them etc., maybe your customer can accept you use this lab w/o ISo17025 certificate.
different cb have different auditor and then different result.

 

[SteelWoman]

We also use another division of our same company to perform testing, all within our defined TS relationships of "support sites." We've never had a problem with that in audits AT ALL - we're talking decades of this practice amongst our many divisions.

 

[p_tww]

support sites defined in TS should be covered in audit, as it was under your systems. But if it was not under your system, it is external lab.