Equipment Procedure Due Dates and Addendums
Have you added a new piece of equipment to the R18LabQMS application recently or maybe your first piece of equipment into the inventory? If you have, you probably noticed that one of the requirements for new equipment added to the inventory is to specify the the next or upcoming procedure date for both calibration and maintenance records. This is the starting point in which the application will start to manage your reminders and due dates for calibration and maintenance. It is common for equipment to be sent out for cal/check/standard procedures and completed before they make their way back, dates on the calibration certificate should be used when completing procedures. One example I’ll use is ASTM glass thermometers that are purchased new and received with a certificate of calibration. When adding the equipment to the inventory, the next or upcoming procedure due date would be the date of calibration listed on the calibration certificate.
Once you have completed that first calibration on the equipment, based upon the frequency of calibration schedule, the application will turn the calendar ahead to the next due date and remind you of your calibration. But say that your equipment conveniently goes out of calibration prior to your next calibration due date? In some labs this may be commonplace, and we dread finding out that a certain piece of equipment is not meeting calibration requirements there are steps that need to be taken in documenting these changes and the R18LabQMS application can help.
Typically, when a piece of equipment goes out of calibration the first thing we will do is check our most recent calibration records for reference, which we can find in the Procedure History tab of the application. We then re-calibrate the device or machine, but we need to record these changes for our QM and records management. This is where Addendum’s are utilized in the application. Addendums can be performed by the Primary Lab Manager and Lab Manager by going into the Inventory and under the Actions Menu selecting the Calibration or Maintenance procedure for the particular piece of equipment. On the right-hand side you will find Procedure History for the procedure, where you can create an Addendum for the most recent procedure record. The form is identical to the original and you can fill in all the new calibration data, storing the re-calibration records. As a note, when completing an Addendum this does not affect the next due date of that procedure, but is treated as supplemental or supporting information.
We are always looking for feedback from our users, if you have any comments, suggestions, or general inquiries about the application contact us by visiting our Contact page.
Gary Irvine