NATA accreditation getting close
As we reported in the August 2009 edition of Fertile Minds, SESL is currently working on NATA (National Association of Testing Authorities) accreditation. NATA accreditation is an official (government-recognised), independent verification of a laboratory’s ability to carry out tests according to world’s best practice, and is recognised worldwide.
The process began formally in September 2009, when a NATA representative visited us for a day to inspect our lab and to advise on what we needed to do to gain accreditation. Early this month, two NATA assessors visited us over two days to assess our set-up, procedures, documentation, quality control (QC), quality assurance (QA), equipment, methods for handling problems, adherence to protocols and lots more.
According to NATA, “The objective of the assessment is to establish whether the laboratory can competently perform the tests/examinations for which accreditation is sought. The assessment team is required to investigate the operation of the laboratory against the NATA Accreditation Requirements for this field and report its findings to both the laboratory seeking accreditation and NATA’s Accreditation Advisory Committee for that field of testing.”
The assessors gave us a preliminary report detailing improvements still needed, and will give us a formal report in May. Once we have attended to all outstanding matters, we are confident that we will be NATA-accredited within another three to four months. This might seem a long time, but it will take us that long to collect enough routine lab data to verify some of our new procedures.
We will keep you up to date on our progress towards this important accreditation.
Other QA/QC accreditation at SESL
SESL also participates in a continuous program of inter-laboratory proficiency testing under the auspices of three testing authorities: NMI (National Measurement Institute), ASPAC (the Australasian Soil and Plant Analysis Council) and the USGA (United States Golf Association).
In addition to this, SESL has long held ISO 9001 accreditation, which certifies that quality management processes are being applied in the company so that all steps in the work flow are documented and can be tracked.
Further information
Wikipedia: ISO 9001