A2LA Today l December 2017 l Number 137
By Trace McInturff, A2LA Senior Director, Accreditation Services
ISO/IEC 17025:2017 was approved and released on November 29, 2017. As previously determined, ILAC (as well as the regional bodies APLAC and IAAC) have mandated a 3-year implementation for all laboratories to become compliant with the new standard. This means all laboratories must update their management systems, be assessed and gain accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 by November 2020.
As of this writing A2LA is finalizing our implementation plans which will be presented directly to our accredited and applicant laboratories upon completion. At present A2LA is planning a 1-day ‘delta’ training for our currently contracted assessors on Thursday March 15, 2018 in correlation with the A2LA Technical Forum. This will ensure that A2LA is able to quickly react to the release of the new standard and begin assessing to the new requirements in rapid fashion.
Laboratories in need of assistance in learning and comprehending the changes in the new ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard may explore A2LA training opportunities on the training page and 2018 training calendar.
Laboratories may be happy to know that while they are busy dissecting the changes to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard, A2LA will also be busy dissecting and implementing the changes to the newly approved and released ISO/IEC 17011:2017, the standard with which A2LA must maintain compliance. ISO/IEC 17011:2017 was also approved and released on November 29, 2017 and similarly with ISO/IEC 17025, ILAC has also mandated a 3-year transition for all Accreditation Bodies to become compliant with the new standard. A2LA just happens to have our regularly scheduled ILAC/APLAC/IAAC re-evaluation scheduled for May 2018 and have already alerted the Evaluation Team Leader that A2LA is requesting to be evaluated to the new standard.
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