IAS July 2021 - Flipbook - Page 1
INTERNATIONAL ACCREDITATION SERVICE, INC.
NEWSLETTER
JULY 2021
Content
Letter from the President
From the President’s Desk
By the time this newsletter
reaches your inbox, we will
have completed half of our
journey in 2021 and it seems
we have made some progress. Most of the world’s
population is either experiencing continuing lockdown
or is somewhat “opening
up” to normality. Indeed, we have not yet opened
our global headquarters here in Brea, California, but
expect to open fully in September 2021.
Who would’ve predicated back in March 2020, when
we all shut down, that 15 months later we would
only “see” each other through an electronic box! On
the balance, I can state objectively that our business, though remote, continues steadily. IAS staff
and our colleagues around the globe have stepped
up to the challenge and shifted our operations to
meet our customers’ needs. As the situation in the
United States continues to show steady improvement with an increasing number of the population
vaccinated, our hearts and minds reach out to those
parts of the world where COVID continues to have
tragic consequences. IAS management has been
consistently reaching out to our global customers
and colleagues to assure them of our support as
well as extend any help we can through these tough
times.
Lately, we have noticed a heightened, industrywide
focus on educational and training programs. As a
result, this year, IAS has taken the initiative to host
a higher volume of technical webinars, technical
conclaves and conformity assessment standards
training programs. We surmise these efforts have
been well-received due to noted increases in active participation from the conformity assessment
community. The sessions have ranged from specific
technical themes on water testing and analytical matters to broader issues such as certification
versus accreditation. Over the next several months,
we aim to host globally focused conclaves on FDA
ASCA compliance requirements for customers
located in Germany and Korea as well as regions
of India. The FDA ASCA webinars seek to actively
engage attendees and will feature riveting discussions from the FDA’s technical experts. Dimitrios
Katsieris, who manages our FDA initiatives, has
been working closely with Greg West, director of
IAS’ customer success group, and other colleagues
to make these webinars successful.
I also want to draw attention to the growing global
recognition of the ISO/IEC 17024 accreditation
program, and its relevance and use toward certified
personnel. Increasing awareness among regulators,
specifiers and other industry decision-makers is key
to enhancing this program and ensuring a level playing field on personnel certification schemes. Under
the leadership of George Anastasopoulos, Ph.D. and
Osman Vural, I expect this program to continue to
see strong growth.
Additionally, IAS continues to monitor and perform
market surveillance across all conformity assessment program activities to ensure audit practices
are consistent and usage of the IAS and CAB marks/
logos are properly controlled. In recent months, we
noticed some spurious use of the IAS logo in the
marketplace, prompting the IAS technical team to
actively investigate potential misuses. Our actions
thus far have resulted in significant success; however, given the wide world of the web, monitoring and
preventing such misuse will be an ongoing activity.
Again, we urge our global customers to pay closer
attention to any developments regarding conformity
assessment matters taking place in ILAC, IAF, APAC,
ISO and within your local regulatory communities,
as well as other standards organizations, in order to
monitor, engage and respond effectively to any and
all technical documents and drafts that can impact
your businesses. One recent example is the current
discussions within the IAF technical community
on a draft mandatory document (MD) pertaining to
the validation of product certification schemes. A
number of stakeholders have been quite concerned
about the direction of this draft MD, and the IAS
staff has expressed its concerns in many forums.
I implore all accredited customers and interested
parties to pay close attention to such global bodies
(ILAC, IAF, ISO, etc.) that play an outsized role in your
business activities. Your voice can make an impact
if you do participate and speak up!
Finally, we celebrated Building Safety Month in May,
and marked World Metrology Day on May 20 and
World Accreditation Day on June 9 by hosting virtual
events. As we journey into the rest of the year, I
encourage you to continue keeping an eye on your
inbox for other upcoming webinars, which are not
only stimulating but also an interesting way to meet
your peers
Regards,
Raj Nathan
ISO 9001 Revision User
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