Accreditation is an attestation of a conformity assessment body’s (CAB) competence to perform conformity assessment activities based on a defined scope by an accreditation body, such as A2LA. It demonstrates competence, impartiality, and capabilities of CABs, thereby delivering confidence in goods and services placed on the market. Accreditation operates in the public interest across all market sectors by providing a framework, good governance, fair markets, effective procurement, and public confidence.
Most commonly, accreditation is offered to organizations performing testing, calibration, inspection, certification, and other similar conformity assessment activities.
What is ILAC / IAF and Their Associated MRAs?
International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) is the international authority on accreditation of laboratories, inspection bodies, proficiency testing providers, reference material producers, and biobanking facilities. Similarly, the International Accreditation Foundation (IAF) is the international authority on accreditation of certification bodies. Accreditation bodies operating in accordance with ISO/IEC 17011 can become signatories to the ILAC and IAF Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRA), which in turn, allows them to accredit CABs to internationally recognized standards, such as ISO/IEC 17025:2017, ISO/IEC 17020:2012, ISO/IEC 17065:2012, and others.
Accreditation bodies are evaluated by peers to be determined competent. Once determined to be competent, they can sign MRAs, which enhances the acceptance of products and services across national borders. The purpose of these arrangements is to create a framework to support international trade through the removal of technical barriers. The ILAC MRA allows all stakeholders to make use of a global network of accredited organizations that can be counted on to provide accurate and reliable results. A2LA’s vision, “We create a safer, healthier world,” embodies the goal of these MRAs.
Benefits of Accreditation to the Public
Accreditation benefits a wide range of stakeholders, including consumers, manufacturers, regulators, and conformity assessment bodies. Perhaps most importantly, consumers benefit from accreditation, knowing that suppliers and retailers have taken every step to ensure safety of the products and services they provide. This allows consumers to rely on accreditation as a basis for selecting products, knowing they have been tested, calibrated, inspected, and/or certified by an accredited CAB. When conformity assessment results come from an accredited organization, consumers can be confident that the CAB has been assessed by an independent accreditation body, such as A2LA, that has been recognized as meeting international standards of competence, impartiality, and integrity. While accreditation benefits the public through increased confidence in a product’s reliability and safety, it provides an additional benefit to the public by facilitating global trade.
Due to globalization and the ever-increasing connectivity of the world, international trade is at an all-time high and continues to grow each year. With this growth comes an increase in regulations, standards (e.g., testing & inspection), and requirements for products traded and marketed internationally. While these additional conditions benefit all through increased quality and safety, it is important that they are not prohibitively costly or burdensome to manufacturers, CABs, retailers, or consumers, which could cause technical barriers to domestic or international markets.
Through the international MRAs, the acceptance of products and services across international borders is made easier and more efficient by removing the need to undergo testing, inspection, and/or certification in each country the product is marked and sold. These MRAs effectively allow each signatory to recognize all other signatory’s accredited CABs as equivalent to their own accreditation. All of this results in more choices of goods and services on the market that meet the relevant standards of quality and safety regardless of where they originate.
Benefits of Accreditation to Conformity Assessment Bodies
Accreditation has immense benefits to consumers, but the benefits to CABs cannot be overstated. Accreditation provides formal recognition that CABs are competent, impartial, and independent; allowing their clients to identify and select reliable conformity assessment services easily and confidently.
CABs are required to be assessed at least every two years to maintain their recognition and to ensure continued compliance with all requirements, including their own internal quality systems. Through these means, accreditation is a highly effective marketing tool for CABs to gain business, win contracts, and differentiate from their competitors. The ILAC and IAF MRAs have allowed accreditation to become a reliable indicator of technical competence internationally, resulting in many industries specifying accreditation for suppliers of testing, calibration, inspection, and certification services.
Additionally, accredited organizations benefit from having their accredited services marketed by their Accreditation Body via a directory of accredited organizations, which includes the CABs capabilities and contact information. And finally, through the ILAC and IAF MRAs, accredited CABs gain formal, international recognition of their conformity assessment activities, allowing their results to be accepted in more markets. Through this international recognition, customers of CABs can reduce conformity assessment costs by decreasing or eliminating the need for redundant conformity assessments in other countries. Conformity assessment bodies benefit greatly from accreditation and the marketing opportunities it provides. However, the benefits to performance are equally valuable.
CABs can benefit from the feedback that conformity assessment activities provide. Accreditation assessments give CABs the opportunity for an independent, quality, and technical evaluation of their performance to ensure they are consistently producing accurate and reliable results. This feedback provides a means for CABs to determine if they are performing their work competently and in-line with all requirements, creating a framework for continuous improvement. While the marketing benefits can be vital to CABs offering commercial services, both commercial and internal CABs can benefit greatly from the performance improvements accreditation provides.
Benefits of Accreditation to Industry Users and Manufacturers
Users of accreditation, such as manufacturers, can be confident in the accuracy and reliability of results obtained from accredited CABs thanks to ILAC and/or IAF recognized accreditation bodies. This attestation minimizes risk, helps avoid repeated conformity assessment activities due to incompetent services and the associated costs, increases consumer confidence, and reduces the costs to manufacturers and suppliers of a product being tested/calibrated/inspected/certified in all markets in which it will be sold.
Accreditation can also improve the efficiency of its users in risk management and decision making. When accreditation is utilized as a basis or input in selecting conformity assessment providers, risk is reduced and decision making is made easier, as well as increased confidence in the final product when it is exported internationally. Finally, users of accreditation can utilize this input in the selection of conformity assessment activities to demonstrate due diligence during litigation.
In addition to the benefits provided to manufacturers utilizing accredited CABs, manufacturers can also benefit from obtaining accreditation themselves. Manufacturers can see cost savings by outsourcing the evaluation of their own internal conformity assessment activities to recognized accreditation bodies, thus saving on costs associated with confirming the quality and accuracy of those conformity assessment activities. Manufacturers can also gain confidence in the independence and impartiality of the accreditation body, which an internal evaluation team may not match. Finally, by becoming accredited, manufacturers can benefit from the market access the ILAC and IAF MRAs provide.
Summary
Accreditation ultimately promotes trust and builds confidence for all users involved, from the manufacturer to the CAB, to the end user. This trust and confidence allow for the international acceptance of conformity assessment results, supporting global trade through the removal of technical barriers on exported products and services. The removal of this barrier reduces time and cost for all involved, allowing products and services to be created and distributed cheaper, safer, and more efficiently.
Take the first step in building quality and confidence in your organization. Click here to request an estimate. For more information about accreditation, contact A2LA at info@A2LA.org or call 301-644-3248.