What is Accreditation?
Accreditation Activity
The increasing demand on quality of products and services offered both in external and internal trade necessitates compliance with technical regulations, standards and other regulatory measures covering health, safety and quality. In regulatory systems, government authorities implement regulations covering approval of products and services for reasons of health, safety, environmental protection, fraud prevention or market fairness. In voluntary systems, different sectors of industry including services, establish conformity assessment and certification procedures aiming at achieving specified standards for products processes and systems thereby enabling market access, comparability and ensuring competition on equal terms. These systems apply to trade in goods and provision of services both within an economy as well as globally.
The provision of goods and services conforming to technical regulations (mandatory) or standards (voluntary) requires efficient procedures for assessment of conformity to relevant stipulated requirements. Conformity assessment activities that include inspection, testing, certification and GHG Validation/Verification for voluntary or mandatory systems, are carried out by Conformity Assessment Bodies (CAB’s) having necessary competence to carry out such tasks.
In such operations, both at domestic and global levels, there is an increasing demand for independent verification of CAB’s for competence, impartiality and credibility. Such verifications are done by authoritative accreditation bodies that act impartially in relation to both CAB’s and their clients. Accreditation by SLAB demonstrates the competence, impartiality and performance capability of the accredited Conformity Assessment Bodies.
What are the benefits of being accredited?
- 01
Building Trust
In the global trade, customers are becoming more demanding and seeking assurances on the products and services you provide them. By getting accreditation, your customers will have the confidence in the quality of products and services that you provide. This will enable you to build trust between you and your customer.
- 02
International Recognition
Through the various mutual recognition arrangements between accreditation bodies, overseas markets will accept your company more readily if they know you have been certified by a SLAB accredited certification body or accept your test results or inspections if you are an accredited laboratory or inspection body.
- 03
Minimizes Risk
Accredited organizations reduce the risk of providing unreliable test results, services and products, and are able to meet the customers’ expectations.
- 04
Reduce Costs
Although accreditation comes at a cost, the cost savings resulting from being accredited will outweigh the cost of accreditation. Cost savings may result from improved productivity, reduced downtime, reduced re-testing, etc.
- 05
Demonstrate credibility
No organization will want to spend money on getting a report or certificate that has not been accredited by a competent body. A SLAB accredited organization is able to demonstrate competence hence credibility. The general procedure for getting accreditation