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ACTS has got the ISO 9002:1994 certificate in 1998 then successfully shifted to ISO 9001:2000 in the year 2001 and still successfully passing the surveillance audits.
As ACTS is going beyond the ISO 9001 certificate; it starts fulfilling the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 in its different premises, accordingly ACTS got the accreditation certification in 2008.
ACTS is the pioneer material testing lab in Lebanon accredited to ISO/IEC 17025, its accreditation covers more than 60 tests distributed almost over all kinds of Construction Material such as Soil, Concrete, Cement, Asphalt, Water, etc.
Part of its fulfillment of the ISO/IEC 17025 requirements ACTS participated in several Interlaboratory comparison programs for chemical and physical testing of Cement, Bitumen, Water, Paint, Soil and Aggregate, such programs were organized by famous organizations like BS Institute, AASHTO Materials Reference Laboratory, and ATILH Association Technique de l’Industrie des Liants Hydrauliques.
Why ACTS is going beyond ISO 9000 to 17025?
First, the ISO/IEC 17025 standard can be considered the technical compliment to ISO 9000, and any organization operating in compliance with ISO/IEC 17025, also meets the requirements of ISO 9001:2000. While the ISO 9000 requirements are generic and can be applied to any type of business, the laboratory requirements of ISO 17025 are very specific to testing and calibration laboratories and was developed specifically to guide laboratories to cover every aspect of laboratory management from sample preparation and analytical testing to record keeping and reporting.
Second, the customer will benefit from the ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation; some of these benefits are summarized below:
- Saving cost and time through getting accurate results, where no need to repeat the test or lose the project due to invalid results; and through the elimination of the need for shipping and testing at accredited laboratories in different countries.
- More confident about results as laboratories accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 are technically competent and able to generate valid results at an acceptable level, and to appropriate standards.
- Tested products would be almost eligible for international recognition; this would also eliminate the need for dual testing in different countries.
- Certification reports issued by the laboratories accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 would be recognized by the WTO member countries. The Technical Barrier to Trade (TBT), an obligation of WTO, includes ISO/IEC 17025 as essential requirement for testing / calibration laboratories
Moreover, the availability of accredited testing and calibration laboratories would have its impact on the country as well; it is a step forward of the country to meet the WTO challenges; with which, the industries, manufacturers, traders, etc. will be able to get their products accepted world wide according to the requirements of the WTO.
On the other hand, the quality control of imported products by accredited national laboratories ensures that technically sound products reach the consumers in the country. Also, the quality control of locally manufactured products ends with building the consumers confidence in the quality of the national products and leads to boosting of such products and promoting national industry.
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