Auditor access to your QMS
Until now, auditors performed on-site assessments the traditional way. They reviewed your Quality Management System by pulling out a huge three-ring binder that the auditor pours over for several hours in your office. One of our goals during the development of R18LabQMS was to make the system intuitive and provide easy access to your QMS by auditors for on-site assessment prior to arriving and minimizing the length of time your laboratory is shut down for inspection.
If you are used to the old school method of managing your QMS, it can take countless hours of reviewing and verifying that all requirements are up-to-date in efforts to prevent non-conformities that require a response by the laboratory.
One of the benefits of managing and updating your QMS using R18LabQMS is it maintains the section history for five years. When changes are made it creates a new line item and document and the date changes are made. Each month the recurring checklist lists sections 5 and 6 that require procedures and specific information about your lab and requires users to address each section, update or dismiss for no change.
You may notice that we make reference to AMRL auditors as opposed to assessors, this is because our intent is to be more generic. In the near future the AMRL reference will be removed and the log-in page for example will say “Auditor Access.” The intent with the R18LabQMS application is to meet the requirements of AASHTO R18 and provide a platform to manage your Quality Management System. Please note there are other accreditation bodies for laboratory accreditation within the construction materials industry.
Giving access to auditors
This is easily done for the auditor by simply going to the log-in page (same as user). Create an account by clicking on the “AMRL Auditor Sign Up” tab, this is where you will create your log-in credentials. Once an auditor has their credentials they can log-in and request a laboratory to allow them to access their QMS. The laboratory will then be notified by email, access can be granted by going to the dashboard at the bottom of the page. Please note that auditor access to your QMS can be disabled at any time and is read-only.
For all questions regarding quality management systems for your laboratory whether you are accredited or not please contact us and learn how R18LabQMS can add value to your company.
– Gary Irvine