According to wikipedia, a managementsystem is “a set of policies, processes and procedures used by an organization to ensure that it can fulfill the tasks required to achieve its objectives related to a special area (e.g. quality). ” to be more precicely: Processes and structures are existing and written down, that are following one the other, to reach a goal (e.g. raise/hold the quality of a product/analysing result) sort of automatically when all of them are followed. Single processes or persons therefore not have to decide globally, but were led by the system to the correct (from the companys point of view) direction.

 

Accreditation vs. Certification

The word accreditation is based on the latin “accredere” and means „to believe in / to trust“.
Accreditation means, that a commonly approved organization (in Germany the only valid one is the “DAkkS”, the “Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle” (which means ‘German Accreditation Authority’)) is certifying a specific competence of another company. This other company is called “Konformitätsbewertungsstelle” (“KBS”) which means ‘conformity evaluation institute’. The certificate is saying that the KBS has got the competence to check and evaluate the conformity (of a product, an article, a process, …). Specific means, that the accreditation is always valid for defined processes solely. This means, that it is not sufficient to say “one is accredited acc. to standard XY” but “one is accredited acc. to standard XY for …”. You as the customer shall rely on the examination being performed and evaluated with competence, or, to close the loop, shall ‘believe in’ / ‘trust’ the result.

A testing or calibration laboratory like the IGR is accredited, if it complies to the standard ISO/IEC 17025. To evaluate the conformity, the laboratory is checked by the DAkkS on site regularly in intervals of about one and a half years. Only laboratories that pass these on site assessments is allowed to use the following DAkkS image. Part of the company individual image is the distinct number of the testing laboratory (in German: Prüflaboratorium (“PL”)).

The accreditation is only valid for what is written in the appendix to the act D-PL- 20043-01-00.

 

The sentence below the logo is mandatory if not all of the PL’s services are accredited. This is relatively often the case, as some examinations, but of course also interpretations, are very specific and/or individual and therefore not eligible for accreditation. You can always see from our test reports whether it was an accredited examination or not. You will also find a list of all the procedures we use, including their accreditation status, under QM documents. And of course we treat all procedures and processes with the same quality standards as far as possible, regardless of whether they are accredited or not (yet).

 

And Certification?

Certification (also latin: “certus” and “facere“, meaning like “certain” and “to make“) means a procedure, that shows that distinct requirements were fulfilled. Several companies can write such a certification which means, that there are surely more companies for certification than for accreditation, and “only” the fulfillment of requirements were certified, e.g. that a management system is in principle existing and written good, but not whether the laboratory really got the competence to work according to it. Therefore the standard DIN ISO 9001 can be a good baseline for an accreditation but can never replace it.

Our QM history

In June 2015 we have successfully ended the accreditation process according to DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025:2005 (“General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories”) by receiving the act by the DAkkS.

You can download the current certificate under QM documents. The official entry can also be viewed – as with all accredited CABs in Germany – on the DAkkS website at the following link: https://www.dakks.de/de/akkreditierte-stelle.html?id=D-PL-20043-01-00