Establishment of an ISO/IEC 17025:2017 Accredited Electrical Testing Laboratory in Pakistan

Abstract

Accreditation is a formal way to get a confirmation for technical competence, worldwide recognition and reporting technically valid results against internationally accepted testing methods. It also removes the technical barrier to trade (TBT) and enhances exports. The key factors are equipment, personnel, facilities/environmental conditions, testing methods, quality assurance and metrological traceability. This paper provides guidelines on the establishment of an “Accredited Testing Laboratory in Pakistan” based on ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard, Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC) policies, applicable IEC Testing methods and Quality Management System (QMS) developed at National Institute of Electronics (NIE) which forms the basis for accreditation. The Center for Quality Testing (CQT) at NIE has been established since 2008 and achieved remarkable achievements till date having implemented accreditation. The market share has been increased many folds. The suggested accreditation guideline shall also be exhibited for the betterment of the quality infrastructure for the newly established laboratories seeking accreditation. The same may be applicable for accreditation of calibration laboratories.

Keywords

• accreditation
• calibration
• competence
• iec
• iso/ iec 17025
• nie
• pnac
• qsd
• qms (quality management system)
• tbt