ISO/IEC 17025 General requirements for the competence of testing and
calibration laboratories is the main ISO standard used by testing and
calibration laboratories. In most countries, ISO/IEC 17025 is the standard for
which most labs must hold accreditation in order to be deemed technically
competent. In many cases, suppliers and regulatory authorities will not accept
test or calibration results from a lab that is not accredited. Originally known
as ISO/IEC Guide 25, ISO/IEC 17025 was initially issued by the International
Organization for Standardization in 1999. There are many commonalities with the
ISO 9000 standard, but ISO/IEC 17025 is more specific in requirements for
competence and applies directly to those organizations that produce testing and
calibration results and is based on somewhat more technical
principles.Laboratories use ISO/IEC 17025 to implement a quality system aimed at
improving their ability to consistently produce valid results.It is also the
basis for accreditation from an accreditation body.
There have been three releases; in 1999, 2005 and 2017. The most significant
changes between the 1999 and 2005 release were a greater emphasis on the
responsibilities of senior management, explicit requirements for continual
improvement of the management system itself, and communication with the
customer. It also aligned more closely with the 2000 version of ISO 9001 [3].
The SA8000IEC 17025 Certification Standard is based on internationally recognized standards of decent work, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ILO conventions, and national laws. IEC 17025 Certification applies a management-systems approach to social performance and emphasizes continual improvement—not checklist-style auditing.