Quality

Integrated management system.

Customers, anxious that the ISSeP comply with their requirements and the standards, recommend the application of an integrated management system based on one or more suitable references. An integrated management system is, for the responsible employer, a tool able to formalise its policy and distribute the information and instructions it deems necessary and systematically collect information relating to the operation of the organisation for which it is responsible. Through the guarantees offered, this system plays an important role in the organisation’s positive image. For the latter, it is also the translation of the sustainable development concept, which includes economic, social, and environmental aspects. Among the disciplines encountered most often, we can cite quality, safety, environment and, more recently, energy, risks, and information security.

 Quality

The performance of certain activities such as tests, sampling, inspections, organisation of laboratory tests, etc., to be officially recognised, is required by accredited organisations or, at the very least, organisations which apply the requirements of the benchmark relating to the activity.

These impositions arise from European directives and are recommended, among others, in the context of approvals and notifications; these benchmarks are international standards.

The requirements of these benchmarks have been designed to ensure, when they are met, the competence of the organisation applying them, and this at the international level (EA-MLA and ILAC-MRA agreements).

These benchmarks require high-quality both at the organisational level and at the technical/scientific level as well as, of course, traceability at all levels; this last requirement calls for the implementation of an organisation allowing all the information on a given activity to be found at a later date (in the case of the ISSeP: up to 5 years later).

The quality system currently applied at the institute is mainly based on quality according to the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 “General requirements concerning the competence of calibration and testing laboratories”. The implementation of these requirements at the ISSeP is officially recognised internationally by our BELAC accreditation and has been since 1997, a period when only some of the analysis laboratories’ activities were accredited. Our accreditation now concerns the vast majority of our activities, such as testing techniques relating to mineral chemistry, organic chemistry, physical tests, microbiology, exotoxicology, fire behaviour of materials and samples, and this corresponding to water, air, materials (asbestos), waste, soil, sediment, sludge, oils and electrotechnical material.

BELAC 060-TEST accreditation certificate DC1_BE_060-TEST_02

For more information on accredited activities, click on the link below:

ISO17025 : Technical annex to the BELAC n° 060-TEST accreditation certificate

ISO17043 : Technical annex to the BELAC n° 060-PT accreditation certificate

In terms of quality, this system is currently extended to ISO/IEC 17043 “General requirements concerning aptitude tests”; the implementation of these requirements relates to the official recognition of the institute’s competence as an organiser of interlaboratory tests.

The missions of the quality team:
Quality management is assured by a team:
• quality specialists with skills in quality assurance and scientific and technical skills concerning the departments with which they work;
• metrologists responsible for ensuring the traceability of measuring equipment relative to national and international standards, or the subcontracting of the latter;
• of administrators assuming the technical-administrative management of files and records.