The Implementation of Quality Management System to Laboratory Testing Business : In Compliance with ISO/IEC 17025 Standard

The thesis was written to serve the purpose of its commissioned company, to have a quality management system ready for accreditation. As the commissioned company is laboratorial based with different services of digital television testing services, it was required to follow ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standard. Therefore, the thesis main objective was to study how to successfully implement quality management system in conformance with the standard. Implementation of quality management system and improvement of quality process is an objective of many companies. In many companies, having a quality management system is part of strategic business development. A company with good quality practices easily gains trust and interest from existing customers as well as from potential customers. Quality is a broad topic and it indeed cannot be covered thoroughly within this project, so the author focused in three important angles that could help the process of implementing quality system become easier to the company. Those are the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standard, the construction of a quality handbook, and the company’s readiness to accreditation. The thesis consists of nine chapters, expanding from the theory of quality, management system, ISO/IEC 17025:2005 until the results of internal studies and final discussion of the author. During the project, researches and study were made through qualitative methods to gain necessary information for analysis. The primary data was collected through questionnaire, interviews, observations and study of internal documents. The secondary date was collected from reliable sources of information, including guidebooks and standards related to the study. According to the findings, the company was mostly conforming with the standard, and there was need for little changes or updates in the system to be fully conformance. Other objectives set in the beginning of the project were achieved: the ISO/IEC 17025:2005 was fully examined and the quality handbook was completed. The author would suggest external sample audit as the next step before the company applies for certification of standard conformance