NQI PROJECT ONGOING - Supports training on int’l laboratory standard

NQI PROJECT ONGOING – Supports training on int’l laboratory standard

Jul 15, 2018 Features / Columnists, Standards in Focus

More than twenty Laboratory Professionals from within the private and public sectors, including Inspectors and Technicians from the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) verification and calibration laboratories recently benefited from a five-day training on the requirements of the ISO/IEC 17025 Standard:General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories.
This training, which is one of the deliverables under the on-going National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) Project executed by the Government of Guyana with a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), targeted personnel from analytical, environmental, food and calibration laboratories.
The NQI Project: “Enhancing the National Quality Infrastructure for Economic Diversification and Trade Promotion” is an approximately US Nine million dollar initiative of the Ministry of Business to support SMEs productivity and facilitate value added and export ready products for growth and diversification in new sectors.
These sectors include non-traditional agriculture, aquaculture, business process outsourcing/information technology, and tourism. The project is geared to modernize the current National Quality Infrastructure in order to facilitate the growth of businesses in the local and external markets, protect the people and the environment, and provide recognition for the Guyanese brand in the international market.
Execution of the NQI project is necessary because some of the principal sectors face a number of non-compliance risks in both the local and export markets with significant impact on competitiveness, product development, consumer protection and innovation.
As a result, there is rejection of products, increased costs due to delays while inspections/tests are being done in overseas laboratories, disruptions in trade, loss or inability to expand into new markets, loss of revenue where inaccurate measurements and test results are used and the inability to command premium price where the quality and safety products are not defined.
The laboratories represented at the recently held training have been offering services in metrology, chemical, microbiological and physical testing of products and materials. However, these laboratories have limitations and gaps in relation to technical competence and compliance to the ISO 17025 standard which is recognized as the principal management system for assessing the competency of the service of a laboratory.
Training and capacity building for laboratories in the network and for the GNBS are activities that are required to support the accreditation process of the existing laboratories.
Hence, the recent training focused on Measurement Uncertainty and Method Validation and Verification, to address one of the identified deficiency in relation to laboratories operating within the National Quality Infrastructure(NQI) meeting accreditation requirements to the ISO 17025 standard.
At the end of the training, participants should be able to perform more competently in measurement aspects including describing the main concepts, identifying the main measurement uncertainty sources, and the contributions and components of significance in conducting analysis.
In addition, they should now be able to create a roadmap for the evaluation of measurement uncertainty within their laboratories and describe the main concepts, techniques and procedures used in the validation of methods.
Finally, as it relates to the NQI project, efforts are being made by the IDB and the Project Execution Unit (PEU)to increase the efficiency in the execution of the project deliverables. It is in this regard that a two-day workshop on Project Management for Agile Team-Buiding Exercise was held during July 12 – 13, 2018 for the key stakeholders.
For further information on the NQI, please contact the PEU or the GNBS on 219-0066.

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