Gary wrote: > Actually I believe that the lab accreditation quality guidelines > require ?suggest? that there is a customer complaint handling section > in the lab manual. It?s been a very long time since a lab accredited > (about the same time that NIST accreditation was first implemented) ? > but I remember that as being one of the many process I had to > document.
If a test lab is accredited under ISO 17025, this is a requirement! ANS/ISO/IEC 17025:2005 2nd Edition section 4.8 Complaints says: "The laboratory shall have a policy and procedure for the resolution of complaints received from customers or other parties. Records shall be maintained of all complaints and of the investigations and corrective actions taken by the laboratory (see also 4.11)." When I went through my first A2LA Assessment in 2002, this was a point that our assessor (Larry Gradin) spent a lot of time on. He suggested using the A2LA Action Request Form http://www.a2la.org/forms/ACTION_REQUEST_FORM.htm as the template for our complaint form, which I did. In our internal audit and management review each year, I cover all complaints and suggestions received from customers for the last couple of years. Every two years, during the A2LA assessment, the assessor goes through our complaints/preventative action file to see: * Which (if any) complaints we have received. * Our root-cause analyses of these complaints. * What we have done to resolve them. * If they have been resolved to the customer's satisfaction (sometimes my answer to the customer is that "dBi is not going to go into a certain business area because x, y, and z, but that companies a, b, or c are-- and might be able to help them.") * If we have reviewed the complaint after some time has passed, to see whether our corrective actions were effective, or whether we need to do something more about it (plan-do-check-act, PDCA). John Barnes KS4GL, PE, NCE, NCT, ESDC Eng, ESDC Tech, PSE, SM IEEE dBi Corporation http://www.dbicorporation.com/ - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <[email protected]> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ Graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. can be posted to that URL. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <[email protected]> Mike Cantwell <[email protected]> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <[email protected]> David Heald: <[email protected]>
