What is accreditation?

Reliability through conformity assessment

The demands on the quality of goods and services are steadily increasing in light of the liberalization of world trade and the growing demands of consumers, businesses and lawmakers. Whether in environmental protection, in the food or electrical industry, in health care or in the area of ​​renewable energies - in these as in many other economic sectors, objective testing, calibrations, inspections or certifications are therefore of great importance.

These evaluations ensure that the products, processes, services or systems under review are reliable in their quality and safety, meet a minimum technical standard and comply with the relevant standards, guidelines and laws. Therefore, these objective confirmations are also referred to as conformity assessment .

Trust through accreditation

Confidence in certificates, inspections, tests or calibrations, however, depends on the competence of the person providing the evaluation. Many of these so-called conformity assessment bodies therefore prove the quality of their own work by means of accreditation.

In this procedure, they prove to an independent accreditation body that they perform their activities in a technically competent manner, in compliance with legal and normative requirements and at an internationally comparable level. The accreditation body assesses and monitors the management system and the competence of the staff of the conformity assessment body.

Accreditations therefore play a crucial role in ensuring the comparability of conformity assessment results and in creating confidence in the quality and safety of products and services.

Accreditation: formal definition
The requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies such as laboratories, inspection and certification bodies are specified in the standard DIN EN ISO / IEC 17011 . This standard defines accreditation as

"Confirmation by a third party formally stating that a conformity assessment body has the competence to perform certain conformity assessment tasks"