On July 16, Reading Scientific Services Ltd (RSSL) will celebrate 18 years of accreditation by UKAS, the independent body appointed by government to assess testing organisations for competence, impartiality and performance capability.
"After 18 years, you get the key to the door," says Graham Pettipher, Quality, Environment, Health & Safety Manager and Business Process Manager at RSSL. "However our eighteen years of accreditation to M10 and then ISO 17025 by UKAS and its NAMAS fore-runner, have already been key to opening many doors for RSSL both in the UK and overseas. Customers are very aware of the benefit of working with an accredited laboratory because it means they can trust our results."
The connection between customers and quality has always been integral to RSSL's ethos, and interestingly, now forms a central plank of ISO 17025 too. "When RSSL opened for business in 1987 we initiated our own customer surveys and used the results to help improve our performance," notes Graham. "This kind of practice was embodied into ISO 17025 in 2005, and it has been interesting to see how this Quality System has evolved alongside the other quality programmes that we participate in, such as GMP. It is important to us as a technical consultancy that we have a means to demonstrate our competence, reliability and accuracy especially since different markets tend to favour different systems. Our pharmaceutical customers look for us to demonstrate GMP compliance, whereas UKAS accreditation tends to be favoured by those of our customers who produce food and consumer goods."