No.27
November 2003
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APMP Technical Committee on
Quality Systems
[Brief report on first meeting]
The APMP Technical Committee on Quality Systems (TCQS)
was established at the 17th General Assembly in Tsukuba. Its first
formal meeting was held just before the 18th General Assembly
on 11 November 2002, in Hanoi, Vietnam. Among the items discussed
at this meeting were
Results of the Survey on 'Status of Quality Systems in APMP NMIs', and
APMP Criteria for Accepting a Quality System.
Status of Quality Systems
in APMP NMIs
Twenty out of the thirty-three member
and associate member laboratories responded to the survey. Of
this twenty, thirteen laboratories already have ISO/IEC 17025
based quality systems in place and the other seven are in the
process of setting them up. All the laboratories have used or
intend using technical assessors or peer reviewers from other
NMIs to demonstrate technical competence.
APMP Criteria for Accepting
a Quality System
In order for the APMP to accept a
quality system of an NMI as satisfying the requirements of the
global MRA, it requires evidence demonstrating
(i) the implementation of a quality system satisfying ISO/IEC
17025 (or for reference material producers, ISO Guide 34 or ILAC
Guide 12), and
(ii) technical competence to provide a calibration and measurement
service that can deliver the uncertainties claimed.
The TCQS confirmed the three pathways that member
NMIs could follow to demonstrate compliance with the criteria,
namely
a) Third party accreditation, or
b) Certification to ISO 9001 and attestation by technical peers,
or
c) Attestation by a team consisting of quality system experts
and technical peers, organised through APLAC or a recognised
accreditation body.
The basic information that an NMI is expected to
submit to the APMP to demonstrate compliance was also agreed upon,
with the TCQS Working Group1 assigned the task of reviewing them
and coming up with some additional details.
TCQS Working Groups
The TCQS set up two working groups;
TCQS WG1 to review quality system criteria (APMP, other RMO and JCRB), and
TCQS WG2 to review information submitted by NMIs (APMP and non-APMP) to determine compliance with the criteria.
The members of the two working groups are as follows;
TCQS WG1: A C Gupta, Chris Sutton, Jong Seon Park, Koike Masayoshi,
Lee Shih Mean, Michael Streak, Rohana Ediriweera, Tong Guangqiu
and Tsukasa Iwama.
TCQS WG2: Jong Chul Park, Rohana Ediriweera, Shi Changyan, Stuart
Baylis and Yeoh Kew Huat.
(This report was sent to the secretariat on 24 December 2002.) |
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