Our First Accredited Testing Laboratory Has Started Providing Service!

Merkez Laboratuvarlar
08.01.2021News From Ford

After a challenging period of around about 1.5 years, our Central Laboratories in our Kocaeli Factories have become an accredited laboratory with no. AB-1570-T as of 04.12.2020!

Within the quality assurance management of our Kocaeli Factories and now as it is accredited, our Central Laboratories consists of a calibration laboratory and laboratories where destructive and non-destructive tests are carried out.

What is accreditation?

In its simplest form, accreditation promises to be of constantly high quality and technical competence to customers or users.

Accreditation is the quality infrastructure created to support the reliability and validity of the studies carried out by conformity assessment institutions and connectively to support the ratification of a certificate of conformities they have issued as a result of these studies.

The only institution that has been serving in our country since 2001 and is competent in accreditation is the Turkish Accreditation Agency. TÜRKAK is also a full member of the European Accreditation (EA), the International Accreditation Forum (IAF), and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC).

Laboratory accreditation is based on a volunteer basis. It is focused on competence, objectivity, and independence. It intends to ensure that any test gives the same result whenever, wherever and by whomever, it is applied.

What are the benefits of accreditation to institutions?

Accredited institutions and foundations, prove that they are reliable and of good quality with quality standards; in addition, they offer a nationally and internationally accepted quality and technical proficiency.

The benefits of accreditation to institutions can be summarized as follows:

  • National and international reputation
  • Reliability and customer satisfaction
  • Legal assurance and high level of service quality
  • Compliance with national and international standards
  • Conscious and approved service
  • An objective, independent and impartial service

Our grounds in Turkey

  • "Ford Otosan Kocaeli Factory Central Laboratories" is the first institution to receive accreditation in Turkey with SAE J2527 and SAE J2412 standards.
  • One of the two automotive manufacturer companies that have accredited testing laboratories in Turkey is Ford Otosan.

What are the general stages of the accreditation process?

In the process, candidate institutions are evaluated in terms of both technical competence and quality management system.

Standard no. TS EN ISO / IEC 17025 specifies the general requirements for the accreditation of Test and Calibration laboratories. Institutions that comply with this standard are ready for accreditation. The process from the accreditation application to the arrival of the document briefly consists of the following stages:

  • The first application is made through the TÜRKAK portal with the preparation of necessary documents.
  • The documents in the application file are examined by TÜRKAK and the applicants are notified if there are any missing documents.
  • Within the scope of the tests applied for accreditation, relevant auditors are selected to organize an audit team.
  • The audit team conducts both technical and QMS (Quality Management System) reviews for the tests within the scope, and reports if there are any nonconformities.
  • A field audit is carried out and if there are any nonconformities, notification is given for correction.
  • A decision is made for accreditation.

What are our accredited tests?

While determining the tests we will add to the scope in the first accreditation phase; we examined the test methods that are financially the most contributing to the company and currently working in accordance with the TS EN ISO / IEC 17025 standard in technical terms; so we made our first accreditation application with interior trim / exterior trim weathering tests (accelerated fading tests).

For only these two test methods which were planned to be accredited; our teams worked devotedly for about 1.5 years. Throughout technical competence preparations, our teams worked down to the finest technical details of a total number of 13 global standards including SAE J2527, SAE J2412 standards, and associated sub-standards, and have also performed laboratory implementations. Accordingly, by making improvements in the quality management system within the scope of accreditation 41 new documents were created and after being put into use via QDMS they were set into motion in the laboratory. With periodic internal audits, it is aimed to ensure sustainability by auditing compliance with the system and technical requirements by our teams.

As of 04.12.2020 the test methods for which we have earned the "accredited" title and the results of these tests have become accepted both nationally and internationally.

Standards within the scope of our accreditation:

  • SAE J2527 - Performance Based Standard for Accelerated Exposure of Automotive Exterior Materials Using a Controlled Irradiance Xenon-Arc Apparatus
  • SAE J2412 - Accelerated Exposure of Automotive Interior Trim Components Using a Controlled Irradiance Xenon-Arc Apparatus

Following steps

The accreditation process is very new for our institution, it is open to continuous improvement and is an endless process, so it brings together many projects for the future. We can list the first stage activities we will do for the future as follows:

  • Ensuring national and international technical competence for all laboratory activities by continuously improving the scope of accreditation,
  • Providing financial gain to the company together with the expanding scope of accreditation,
  • Leading the industry with the inclusion of new tests (eg. BEV project) that come with new vehicle projects, to the scope of accreditation,
  • Inclusion of calibration laboratories in the accreditation process.

Ayşe Ece Yıldızçelik, Bakış Akyazılı, Burak Birinkulu, Hasan Eren Ertüz, Hamit Dülgar, İbrahim Sever, Pınar Akdeniz and Aziz Kılıç from the Quality Assurance Management team, who supported the project with their valuable contributions as a part of the working team; we thank you once again for breaking crucial grounds for our company.