Complete a laboratory internal audit, assessing your laboratory compliance to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 for each of the following topics, related to advanced mass and use of weighing designs, and provide tables/data as requested in this list. Read NISTIR 5672, SOP 5, and SOP 28 prior to completing this assessment. Your internal audit may identify Action Items and either your own laboratory form and log may be used to document the action items, or you may use the one attached to the pre-work. Submit objective evidence to support this assessment.
- Provide a high-level overview of the laboratory goals upon completion of this course;
- Personnel, Staff Training (6.2): Describe the staff training, education/experience related to mass calibrations;
- Facility, Accommodations (6.3): Describe the environmental controls in the laboratory that will enable compliance to Echelon I limit as described in NISTIR 5672, SOP 5 and SOP 28, also describe the area where standards (internal and incoming) will be stored;
- Equipment (6.4): Provide an inventory of the balances that will be used to perform advanced weighing designs and include the current standard deviation of the measurement process that designate the procedures currently in use (See NISTIR 5672);
- Standards, Calibration Program, and Traceability (6.5, Annex A): Provide a current and proposed traceability hierarchy/inventory of standards and their calibration dates, calibration sources, and describe if changes are in process (See also GMP 11 and GMP 13 from NISTIR 6969);
- Procedures (7.2): Describe the mass calibration and uncertainty calculation and reporting procedures in current use in the laboratory;
- Care and Handling of Standards and Items Submitted for Calibration (7.4): Describe the process by which standards are accepted for calibration as well as current practices for cleaning, stabilization, and equilibration;
- Uncertainty (7.6): Provide a summary of mass calibration uncertainties for the laboratory that include a description of each component that is currently incorporated as well as an uncertainty budget table and current Scope of recognition or Accreditation (See SOP 29 from NISTIR 6969 as well);
- Measurement Assurance (7.7): Describe the current control charts and assessments that are in place in the laboratory for mass measurements and describe the proficiency tests that you have completed for precision mass calibrations (See NISTIR 6969, SOP 9 and SOP 30); and
- Calibration Certificates (7.8): If your laboratory has already been working at this level, assess the calibration certificates issued for calibrations done at this level against the criteria in section 7.8 of 17025:2017 (See also SOP 1, NISTIR 6969 for a checklist). If your laboratory is not working at the Echelon I or weighing design level, assess a mass calibration certificate at the highest level of mass calibrations that is on your Scope.
Note: some of the tables and analysis may be combined in a spreadsheet, as long as suitable identification, document control, and references are made in the summary write-up. This material will be reviewed and used during the seminar to identify proposed action items in each participant's laboratory.