Abstract
Under ISO/IEC 17025, to maintain the high competence of calibration laboratories, the capability of performing quality control procedures effectively is one of basic requirements for monitoring the validity of tests and calibrations undertaken. The calibration laboratories are generally required to participate in interlaboratory comparison or proficiency testing (PT) activities to fulfill the quality control procedure for establishing the effectiveness and comparability of the tests or calibrations. Normally PT providers deliver only the outcomes of PT, but not the cause of the abnormality for the participating laboratories. Therefore, most of the secondary calibration laboratories have difficulties to identify their problems, if they report abnormal results in the PT activities. In this article, most common participants’ problems in the PT activities held in Taiwan were summarized and analyzed. Through the PT activities, hosted by Center for Measurement Standards (CMS) of Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the problems are categorized as measurement method difference, error correction from traceability, reporting of the measurement results, and uncertainty claims. The possible causes for these problems were discussed in this article, as well. Based on the outcomes of the PT activities, CMS will help the secondary calibration laboratories to identify the cause of the problems they have encountered in the PT activities afterwards. Once the laboratories can identify and realize their causes of the problems, subsequently, each laboratory adopted proper correction actions according to requirements of the accreditation body, Taiwan Accreditation Foundation (TAF). The implementation of PDCA cycle in the correction plans and actions improves the internal quality control of the calibration result. At the end, the effectiveness and comparability of tests or calibrations for the laboratories are improved and established.
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