A2LA-Accreditation of dBi Corporation

John R. Barnes
dBi Corporation
August 10, 2002
jrbarnes@iglou.com


Laboratory
Certificate Number 1985-01

Accreditation formally recognizes a test house's/laboratory's: Under Certificate Number 1985-01, the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA)

   

has accredited dBi Corporation to perform:

The A2LA and the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) are the only two Accreditation Bodies in the United States that may accredit test houses and laboratories to support Declarations of Conformity under CFR 47, FCC Part 2.948.

For dBi Corporation, some major advantages of A2LA accreditation are:

  1. We can offer more services to our clients, especially the FCC testing of Class B personal computers and peripherals.
  2. Enhanced credibility and reputation in the electronics community.
  3. A periodic, very thorough review of our testing business, top to bottom, by internationally-recognized experts.
  4. Personalized advice on how to better meet national and international testing requirements.
  5. Consequent improvements to our processes and Quality System.
Even though dBi Corporation had been A2LA-accredited before, under the ownership of Don Bush, our re-accreditation in 2002 required an investment of: For a small test house like ours, this was a major investment of our attention, time, and money. Two main factors stretched out our accreditation: Friends and former co-workers who had gone through A2LA Assessments before gave us a lot of help and advice. Three of their most valuable suggestions were to:
  1. Thoroughly prepare for the A2LA Assessment.
  2. Listen very carefully to the A2LA Assessor(s), take good notes, and don't be afraid to ask them questions- the Assessors are well trained, very experienced, and have a wealth of knowledge that you can tap into.
  3. Be very responsive- try to take care of any deficiencies before the Assessor leaves. Showing that you have corrected deficiencies by E-mail, fax, and Snail-mail after the Assessor leaves is a slower, much more painful process than reviewing the corrections directly with the Assessor.
To prepare for the A2LA Assessment we had to review almost every aspect of dBi Corporation's business. This turned out to be a fairly straightforward, if lengthy, process:
  1. Went to the A2LA web site, http://www.a2la2.net/, and downloaded all the pertinent documents.
  2. Got a copy of ISO/IEC 17025:1999, General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories
  3. Studied ISO/IEC 17025, and made sure that we met every applicable requirement (as we understood them). Updated our Quality System, and documented the changes in our Quality Manual. Changed/enhanced other procedures and documentation as needed. Approved the Quality Manual.
  4. Went through the ISO/IEC 17025 Checklist, item-by-item.
  5. Went through the A2LA Advertising Policy Checklist, item-by-item.
  6. Mailed in our Application for A2LA Accreditation, along with all the supporting documentation. (We had sent A2LA the check previously.)
  7. Handled various issues as they came up, via E-mails, faxes, and letters back and forth.
  8. Waited for the A2LA to assign an Assessor.
  9. Contacted the Assessor, and provided him with the information he requested.
  10. Handled more issues via E-mails, faxes, and letters to the Assessor and the A2LA.
  11. Scheduled the Assessment with the Assessor.
  12. Got everything ready. Made sure that we fully complied with our revised Quality Manual, and had on hand all the documents called out by our Quality Manual and our proposed Scope of Accreditation. Our goal was to have no outstanding deficiencies when the A2LA Assessor left Lexington.
The assessment itself took two days, versus a typical three full days to assess a small lab. Because we use the facilities and equipment of another A2LA-Accredited laboratory, which was assessed just late last year, we did not have to cover those sections of the assessment. Nevertheless, the A2LA Assessor not only reviewed sample test reports, but personally witnessed me running every category of test covered by our Scope of Accreditation.

We worked with Larry Gradin, our Assessor, for close to 12 hours the first day. After the introductions, I showed Larry our office, library, computer systems, and client files. Then we got down to the real work, beginning with the ISO/IEC 17025 Checklist. Here we are, about one hour into the assessment (John Barnes of dBi Corporation on the left, Larry Gradin of A2LA on the right):

We went through the checklist item-by-item. I would briefly describe my own interpretation of the literal meaning and the intent of the item. If I was unclear on something, I would describe what was bothering me. Larry would answer my questions, and many times would bring up standards and supporting documents on his computer to make sure that I thoroughly understood what the standards, regulations, and the A2LA called for. I wrote down the titles and the designations of the most useful/pertinent documents, so that we can add them to our library in the near future. I was using this as a learning experience, to fully understand all the standards, accreditation rules, and other aspects of the Assessment process. Larry provided all the help he could, while carefully remaining in his role as an impartial assessor.

Together we would study the section(s) of dBi's documentation that was intended to cover the item. After more discussion, Larry would decide whether:

Even though I've taken a number of classes in statistics and Design of Experiments, I was still unclear on how to calculate the uncertainty of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) measurements. As it turns out, Larry chairs the A2LA Electromechanical Advisory Committee. He has spent years researching and discussing approaches to Calculation of Uncertainty in Measurements with the A2LA, NVLAP, the FCC, and others to devise cost- effective ways of meeting the requirements. He has also assessed calibration labs, which have much more rigorous requirements for Calculation of Uncertainty in Measurements than EMC test labs do. We spent over two hours on just this one subject. Larry showed me where I could find sample procedures and lists of references, including the ISO/IEC 17025 List Server which is moderated by another A2LA Assessor, Greg Gogates, at
      http://www.fasor.com/iso25/

Larry and I went through the A2LA Advertising Policy Checklist, our entire Quality Manual, our test procedures, and some sample test reports in the same very- thorough manner.

After a short break for lunch, Larry and I drove over to the EMC Lab. There he watched me run Conducted Emissions tests on a typical product. From beginning to end I explained both what I was doing, and why:

  1. Regulations and test standards pertaining to Conducted Emission tests.
  2. How we would chose the appropriate standards based on the product and its intended markets.
  3. How we would chose the configuration(s) of the product to test.
  4. How we would chose appropriate support hardware, software, and cables.
  5. Setting up the equipment for the test.
  6. Running preliminary tests to find the noisiest operating modes and frequencies.
  7. Experimenting with cables to maximize emissions.
  8. Making wide-band scans to find noise frequencies.
  9. Making narrow-band scans to zoom in on noise frequencies.
  10. Making quasi-peak and average measurements of noise frequencies.
  11. Comparing measurements to the test limits for FCC and CISPR tests,
  12. Handling problems that occur during the test.
  13. Printing out the test results.
  14. Photographing the worst-case configuration for the test report.
  15. Documenting the test.
After completing this witnessed test, we returned to dBi's office. There Larry and I spent the next three hours reviewing the twelve concerns he had identified. The picture below shows Larry with all the documentation that we reviewed that day:

After Larry left, I spent until 2am working on the concerns and potential deficiencies that we had reviewed. I edited over half the pages of our Quality Manual, and wrote two additional operating procedures based on the information that Larry had given us. I also went to our library to implement the dBi Document Control Procedure that I had just prepared.

The next morning Larry and I met at the EMC Lab. There he witnessed me running Radiated Emissions tests on the product, following the same process as the previous afternoon. We had lunch, then went back to dBi's office to review his comments on the two witnessed test sessions and all the revised/ new documents. I had satisfied all the concerns that I could personally take care of, meeting my major goal for the assessment. We also did a final review of the Scope of Accreditation.

Larry gave us one deficiency for not having recently done an Internal Audit that complied with ISO/IEC 17025 Section 4.13. This auditor(s) needed to be independent of dBi. Larry suggested asking the A2LA-Accredited lab whose facilities and equipment we use. Their Quality Management and Technical personnel are intimately familiar with EMC testing, the standards, their facility and their equipment, so they could provide much more value than someone who just ran through the checklist(s).

Larry gave us a second deficiency for not having recently done a Management Review that complied with ISO/IEC 17025 Section 4.14. He said that we could speed up our accrediation by doing the Internal Audit and the Management Review as soon as possible, and getting the results of both in to the A2LA.

We took care of both of these deficiencies early the following week. We had a few more E-mails, faxes, and letters back-and-forth with the A2LA, mainly answering last-minute questions.

Just four weeks after the assessment we received our A2LA Accreditation Certificate and our official Scope of Accreditation from A2LA Program Manager, Trace K. McInturff. The typical delay when there are deficiencies is about three months, so this was superb customer support from the A2LA. Another benefit to us is that the A2LA has effectively stretched this accreditation cycle by two months, at no additional cost to dBi.

If you are interested in pursuing A2LA Accreditation, or learning more about it, Larry Gradin provides some very-useful guidance documents on his company web site at:
      http://www.Integrity-Solutions.org/useful.html .

dBi Corporation may be contacted by: Last revised August 10, 2002.