Strategic views of accreditation

Abstract.This paper summarises the experience we gained while going through an accreditation process in accordance with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 Standard. We propose in this paper an initial path finding study stage to evaluate the laboratory's predisposition for, and the benefits of, accreditation. We also present a conceptual framework as part of the path finding study stage to identify and classify different groups of activities in a laboratory into separate business domains. The objective of the study is to assess, for each business domain, the approach, the benefits, costs and implications of working with a systematic QA and then design a priori appropriate working systems tailored to the real needs of each business. Such a study should naturally lead to an appropriate definition of accreditation scope.