cmm lab accreditation / or cmm calibration to 17025

[A Disho]

We have brown & Sharp ( global 12.15.10) with pc-dmis,
our company is working to go on TS , and in the same time we have a job coming for chrysler, my BOSS is confused and I am even more,
as per chrysler they ask,that our cmm lab to be qulified to 17025 standard,
my cmm calibration report is showng that the (cmm has been calibrated under registered ISO 9002 AND ACCREDITED ISO/IEC 17025) stated in my cmm calibration cert.
what else we have to do to be qualified to check for chrysler,do we need to have all cmm lab accredited ? ( I do have control room temperature and temp. gauge recorder).
Or only calib. cert as above.
Please, let me know from cmm do inspection for chrysler .what should we do.

Thank you in advance.

A D

[#2#]

I am guessing here but most likely YOUR lab would need to be Accredited to ISO 17025 by an outside accreditor such as A2LA or LAB. This would mean that your lab has shown to the accrediting body that you have standards and practices in place that comply with ISO 17025. It is typically a long, difficult and expensive process to become accredited to 17025 if you are starting from scratch.

[dccfreak]

It sounds like from your post, that what you have is a certification from the outfit that does your calibration. Now, I am pretty certain that any of the calibration houses must be accredited to one of the lab accreditation bureaus and it sounds like your certificate basically states that your machine was calibrated by an ISO 17025 accredited facility using the required practices.

This is pretty much what the B&S certification I receive states, but, that doesn't make my lab acceptable as an accredited lab. If this is what Chrysler is asking of you, it may be in your best interest to outsource to an accredited lab if this is going to be something that is short term as accreditation is very expensive and a pretty big pain. Much more critical than an ISO 9001 or TS 16949 registration audits, but, if this is going to be a longer term deal for your company, then if seems worth it you may want to begin this process now. HTH

[dwade]

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE 17025 ACCREDITED!

You have to follow the guidelines as stated in 17025, that means all documentation, records, etc. Your lab even has to have it's own "Quality Systems Manual" in place.

Been through that with DCX and it wasn't that hard as I had a good QE who knew what he was doing that did most of the documentation for me.

Duane

[Bill **********]

As an aside, one of the 17025 accredited shops I do business with has stated to me that they spend 40 hours a month keeping their records up to date. This is AFTER the system is in place and they are accredited.

Bill

[Rick Coleman]

Your boss needs to do some checking. I really don't think you NEED to be ISO 17025 accredited. We have done work for Chrysler (Viper parts) and have never been told we have to be ISO 17025. We are currently TS 16949. All of our standards and the cmm is/are certified by an accredited ISO 17025 lab. I think this may be what Chrysler is looking for.
I know a guy that has a shop that does cmm work and certifies/calibrates a wide variety of precision instruments and gages. They are ISO17025. Not cheap and the paperwork is a killer. He has a part time girl that does 15-20 hours a week just to keep the documentation end up to snuff.

[#2#]

Someone at your company definitely needs to find out exactly what is required.

My previous employer was a metallurgical testing lab. When I started they were attempting to get testing work from a local foundry which makes parts for Ford, Chrysler and GM. When I started they were not ISO 17025. They were not allowed to perform the testing. Three years and much hard work later the lab achieved thier ISO 17025 accreditation and only then were they allowed to do testing for the foundry.

When you are accredited you are accredited to perform certain "tests". The lab could probably have achieved accreditation much sooner if they had only sought accreditation for the few tests needed for the foundry testing. Instead they went a much more difficult route and got accredited for many, many other tests as well. Still, to achieve accreditation they hired an engineer whose main task (40 hrs/week) was to get the quality system in order and it still took 3 years. I'm not saying that accreditation could not be achieved quicker or cheaper but just sharing my experience.

[Dannyrl]

We build parts for Chrysler, GM, Nissan, Ford etc. We are not 17025 certified, but we don't certify out own gages. Our gages are certified by an outside source that is 17025 certified.

[#2#]

We build parts for Chrysler, GM, Nissan, Ford etc. We are not 17025 certified, but we don't certify out own gages. Our gages are certified by an outside source that is 17025 certified.

Are you ISO 9001?

ISO 17025 is strictly for testing and calibration labs.

[Dannyrl]

We are TS-16949 and ISO-14001.