Working on a Saturday morning.....

For the first time in a long time, I did something really productive on a Saturday morning.

One government department was trying to get its lab ISO-17025 accredited (ISO-17025 is the Quality Management System for Laboratory). One of the things that the department needed doing was an internal audit. I was contacted almost two months ago if I could conduct an internal audit on their system. Our lab is ISO-17025 certified. I am a qualified ISO-9001 internal auditor and I also attended the ISO-17025 internal audit training, so I readily accepted. I was also keen to practise what I had learnt and I also saw it an opportunity to do something outside the company.

The lab that I was audited on Saturday morning had an initial assessment by the SAC-SINGLAS (Singapore Accreditation Council - Singapore Laboratory Accreditation Scheme) and it made my job much easier. I did not have to dig too deep into the system as the initial assesors would have been thorough doing their job. I spent two hours auditing the sytem part, and also witnessed two tests that the lab had applied to be accredited. I enjoyed my first experience auditing an external lab. I got to learn new things and got to share what we practised in our own lab.

It felt really good to be able to help another lab in its aspiration to be ISO-17025 accredited. I wish all the best to the lab and its staff and I do hope to hear the news of your accreditation soon.