Auditing, Traceability, and Auditing of Traceability

Auditing, Traceability, and Auditing of Traceability

  • Start Date : 9 February, 2027
  • Start Time : 8:00am
  • End Date : 9 February, 2027
  • End Time : 5:00pm
  • Address : Salon V, N Tower

Abstract

This full day tutorial will cover the fundamentals of internal auditing based on the ISO 19011:2026 Guidelines for auditing management systems standard.  The course will also include the applicable requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, so you can ensure that you have a solid audit program in place that complies with your accreditation body and/or customer requirements.  The course will start with general auditing principles and will cover critical auditing elements such as audit planning, preparation, conduct, key auditor attributes, audit techniques, documentation of audit findings, and audit closing activities.   

A critical element in the operation of every laboratory is metrological traceability.  This course will delve deeper into the specifics of how to appropriately audit metrological traceability and the associated requirements of the ISO standards, customer requirements, and/or the requirements of your accreditation body.  The tutorial will define what metrological traceability is, what requirements need to be considered, and how you specifically audit your laboratory to ensure you have appropriate metrological traceability.  Without metrological traceability, you can’t have confidence in your measurement results.  You can’t just rely on a statement that results are traceability to the international system of units (SI) as your means of auditing metrological traceability.  This course will help you to confirm that you have appropriately established metrological traceability to support the results that are provided to your customers.  

The tutorial will include instruction, group exercises, and group discussions. 

 Learning Objectives: 

  1. List at least two reasons for performing an internal audit 
  2. Describe at least five attributes of an effective auditor 
  3. Describe the internal audit planning and process 
  4. Identify objective evidence  
  5. Explain the concepts of metrological traceability 
  6. Compare calibration certificates against requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 
  7. Use auditing tools to demonstrate the chain of traceability 

Instructor: Andy Oldershaw 

Company: NRC Canada 

Email: Andrew.Oldershaw@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca  

Phone: 613 854 4723 

Instructor: Rob Knake 

Company: NIST NVLAP 

Email: robert.knake@nist.gov 

Phone: 301 550 1287 

Length: 1 Full Day Tutorial.   

Robert Knake

Rob Knake is currently Chief of the NIST National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP). He previously was a Program Manager responsible for the Calibration and Acoustic Testing Laboratory Accreditation Programs. He previously was the Global Compliance Manager for JLG Industries where he was responsible for maintenance of the quality management system, management of the internal/external audit programs, training on QMS principles, and other various activities related to ISO 9001 compliance. Prior to joining JLG, Rob was the Technical Manager at the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) and oversaw various accreditation schemes including Calibration, Life Sciences Testing, Proficiency Testing Providers, and Reference Material Producers. He also serves as an evaluator for the Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation and the Inter American Accreditation Cooperation to perform peer evaluations of accreditation bodies to the requirements of ISO/IEC 17011. Rob has a B.S. degree in Industrial Management as well as an A.E. in Chemical Engineering Technology. Both degrees were obtained from Michigan Technological University located in Houghton, MI.