Things to Remember while Documenting for ISO Accreditation

 One of the most important aspects of your ISO 9001 or 17025 accreditation is documentation of procedures and policies. When implementing the Quality Management System for accreditation or preparing the ISO 17025 Scope of Accreditation, this is the most important element that could also cost you your accreditation. While there is always a threat of over documenting, some policies and procedures that need to be covered to ensure complete documentation and no non-conformances. Using standard templates or getting help from ISO 9001 documentation services could be helpful too. Here are 3 things to remember while preparing these documents that will help ease your task.

 

1. Define process limits: Once you have created a list of procedures to be documented, knowing the steps involved and the limits of the process is very important. Right from raw material procurement to final supplier delivery, every step of the process needs to be documented. Knowing the process and the limits of documentation is a great way of knowing where to stop documenting without missing out on any detail. Getting ISO 17025 accreditation help can ease the process of defining process limits and identify the gaps and misses too.

 

2. Gather and align information: The best way to begin gathering information is to create chart flows that document each part of the process. This will help you find out and focus on all the details and documents that relate to that part of the process and how this process relates to other processes. Once you have the various details available, aligning them to the process flow is important. A common point of aligning focus is the inputs and outputs of every process. This helps you detail your process much better and eliminate any inadequacy of data.

 

3. Define your document structure before writing: A common mistake of preparing the documentation is jumping right into it once you know the details. This might however lead you to rewrite or restructure your document multiple times since you haven’t prepared the flow of it beforehand. Defining the document hierarchy, style of formatting, and style of presentation is a must before you jump into writing the document. This also gives you a clear direction while preparing the QMS documentation.

 

These quintessential pointers are sure to help you better implement your Quality Management System (QMS) and hence make sure you do not miss out on an opportunity to get accredited. If you’re preparing for an ISO accreditation, you could also get in touch with the ISO 17025 and ISO 9001 consulting services at Cal Lab Access. The expert team here helps you prepare documentation and process flow to ease your work. Feel Free to Consult Call Lab Access.