When thinking about the heart of the company, the equipment that produces your product must come to mind. Without good working equipment, your products may become compromised and hurt the company’s reputation for producing good quality products. Let’s say that during a manufacturing process, the scale that was used had gone out of calibration. The product has now possibly been compromised because the scale may not be working within its specifications. Keeping your equipment calibrated is very important to ensure that the products coming from your company are top quality.
Any equipment used to produce, check or inspect your product should be working correctly and within specification. Depending on your companies’ policies, your equipment should be calibrated at least once a year to ensure it is working properly. Equipment gets used and moved around several times, which can cause the equipment to become out of specification and could start to cause problems with your production.
In this example, the balance had an expired calibration and was used to weigh the material for production. Since the balance was out of calibration, the question became whether the appropriate amount of each material was added. Was there too much? Or was there not enough added? Now not only has your product possibly compromised, but you also have a deviation on your hands. Let’s look at what you as a company can do to keep your equipment working accurately.
First of all, your company needs to put a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the equipment, stating when and how many times a piece of equipment gets calibrated. Label each piece of equipment with the calibration due date so that operators know when it becomes overdue and not to use it. A great tool to incorporate is to have an equipment log with all your equipment and their calibration due date, that way, you can plan when to send out a piece of equipment. It is an excellent idea to have a backup for your equipment, so production is not on hold because the equipment is out for calibration. Alternatively, add a section in your batch records and forms for the equipment calibration date, which should catch if the equipment is still within its calibration.
Properly working equipment means your product is being produced at a high quality, and that’s what you want. Adding checks is one way to keep your equipment running smoothly and to ensure that no equipment is out of calibration.
How PSC Biotech® can help you calibrate
PSC Biotech® provides metrology services to calibrate and test for your laboratory equipment. We meet the requirements for yearly proficiency testing. Contact us for more information on how our metrology services can help you.
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