Inspection is the systematic
examination of the extent to which a product, process or service fulfils
specified requirements by observation and professional judgement accompanied as
appropriate by measurement, testing or gauging which should be based on
accurate and reliable data.
Inspections activities are varied and
may be very simple such as checking of quantities, to very complex such as
inspections of dangerous machines, lifts, pressure equipment, agro-foodstuffs,
electrical installations, etc. Some of the inspections are a legal requirement and are
covered by legislation. The objective of every inspection is to reduce the risk
to the owner, the buyer and to the user of the item being inspected.
Decisions by Inspection Bodies have
affects on business continuity, safety of persons and property. Wrong decisions
may lead to financial losses and loss of limb or life.
This is why Governments, manufacturers,
suppliers and customers want to have confidence in the competence of the
Inspection bodies that perform inspections on their behalf. They want to be
sure that the inspection bodies have the personnel, facilities, and technical
expertise to carry out inspections professionally and competently and that they
operate a management system which enables them to control and continually
improve their performance.
Inspections can be used in the voluntary and regulated areas, for the
assessment of conformity of a product, project, service, process or
installation with relevant requirements based on professional judgement.
Accreditation provides assurance of
competence of inspectors, relevance of methods for conducting inspections and
impartiality of results. Accreditation establishes that the
Inspection Body meets the requirements of the international standard for
inspection bodies namely EN ISO/IEC17020.
In
September 2013 IAF-ILAC-ISO jointly issued a Communiqué on the Management
Systems Requirements of ISO/IEC 17020:2012, Conformity assessment –
Requirements for the operation of bodies performing inspection. This
stated that “An inspection body's fulfilment of the requirements of ISO/IEC
17020:2012 means the Inspection body meets both the technical competence
requirements and management system requirements that are necessary for
it to consistently deliver technically valid inspection results. The management
system requirements in ISO/IEC 17020:2012 (Section 8) are written in
language relevant to inspection body operations and are aligned with the
pertinent requirements of ISO 9001.”
Applying for
accreditation
Information on the Accreditation process can be found in the guides section.
Application forms for the accreditation of your inspection body may be
found in the downloads section.