8.5 Actions to address risks and opportunities (Option A) (new)

Complying with clause 8.5 starts with taking a process approach – knowing your workflow for activities that are (or will be) part of your laboratory scope of accreditation. It involves identifying the factors that can affect the activity being assessed. For example, not having a calibrators that are traceable to SI units will mean you have a risk to the validity of your result.

Opportunities must also be addressed, meaning opportunities for improvement. A lab must consider the impact of risk or opportunity and take propitiate action. This involves choosing your methodology, performing an assessment (identification and analysis), deciding if risk treatment is required (or in the case of opportunities, whether you should adopt that change), implementing and then monitoring and followup.

For more information regarding actions to address risks and opportunities, see the ISO 17025 toolkit document template: Addressing Risks and Opportunities Procedure at https://advisera.com/17025academy/documentation/addressing-risks-and-opportunities-procedure/

and for more information on the five steps to address risks, see the article Five-step laboratory risk management according to ISO 17025:2017 at https://advisera.com/17025academy/blog/2019/12/05/iso-17025-risk-management-in-five-steps/

Other responses to similar questions may also be of interest – have a look at 
What is the efficient way and tricks to address, handle and treat the risk and opportunity? at https://community.advisera.com/topic/what-is-the-efficient-way-and-tricks-to-address-handle-and-treat-the-risk-and-opportunity/ and 
Addressing Improvement clause at https://community.advisera.com/topic/addressing-improvement-clause/