Your in-house laboratory can be an asset to your company – provided it is accredited to ISO/IEC 17025

Most companies with an in-house laboratory treat it as a cost centre: a necessary but expensive part of the quality control process. However, a laboratory with ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation can be something quite different – a selling point, a tool for eliminating external testing costs, and proof of a mature quality management system that attracts discerning customers. The difference between a laboratory treated as a cost and one treated as an asset often lies in a single document: the PCA accreditation certificate.

Why your own laboratory’s results may not be enough for your customers

A manufacturer of food, cosmetics, chemicals or industrial products who commissions testing from their own in-house laboratory – and only that laboratory – finds themselves in a position that corporate clients and regulatory bodies view with scepticism. A non-accredited laboratory is, in effect, a laboratory that assesses its own results. There is a lack of independent verification.

For a retail chain verifying a supplier, for a regulatory body assessing a product’s compliance with requirements, or for an export customer checking documentation – a test result from a non-accredited in-house laboratory carries less evidential weight than a result from an accredited laboratory. In many cases, the customer or authority simply requires testing at an accredited external laboratory – and the manufacturer must bear this cost, even though they have their own laboratory.

ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation changes this logic. PCA certification confirms that the in-house laboratory operates according to documented and validated methods, with calibrated equipment and competent staff – exactly the same as a commercial laboratory. Test results from an accredited in-house laboratory carry the same evidential weight as results from external laboratories and are recognised by customers, regulatory bodies and certification bodies.

Tangible savings – when accreditation starts to pay off

For a company with its own in-house laboratory, ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation can be an investment that generates measurable savings within a short period of time.

Elimination or reduction of external testing costs. A manufacturer who has to commission tests from an external laboratory – because their own laboratory is not accredited – incurs a regular cost for each commission. With a large number of tests, these amounts can be significant on an annual basis. Accreditation of the company’s own laboratory eliminates this cost or allows it to be drastically reduced.

Faster turnaround times for testing. Outsourcing to an external laboratory means waiting for results – sometimes several days, sometimes longer. An in-house accredited laboratory delivers results faster, which shortens quality control times and allows for a quicker response to non-conformities. In industries where time is critical to the supply chain, this is a real operational advantage.

A stronger position during customer and certification audits. Auditors assessing a manufacturer’s quality management system – whether during an ISO 9001, BRC, IFS or FSSC 22000 certification audit – verify how the company manages quality control. An accredited in-house laboratory is strong evidence that the company takes quality seriously and that its internal results are reliable. This shortens the audit and reduces the number of questions that need to be answered.

How to transition from an in-house laboratory to an accredited one – and is it difficult?

Many companies put off the decision to have their own laboratory accredited, assuming it is a complicated, costly and time-consuming process reserved for large, specialised organisations. In reality, this is not the case.

ISO/IEC 17025 is a scalable standard – its requirements are applied in proportion to the scope and complexity of the laboratory’s activities. A small in-house laboratory carrying out a few types of tests does not need to build a system comparable to that of a large research laboratory. Instead, it must document its methods, confirm the competence of its staff, ensure the calibration of its equipment, and demonstrate that the results it generates are reliable and reproducible.

A company that already holds other management system certificates – ISO 9001, ISO 22000, BRC – has an additional advantage: many elements of the system (document management, internal audits, corrective actions, non-conformity management) are already in place. Extending the system to meet the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 is then much simpler and cheaper than building it from scratch.