As global travel restrictions are affecting the accredited conformity assessment industry globally, many accredited entities are faced with uncertainty about how this affects their accreditation, which often is essential to business operations. Within accreditation guidelines, accreditation bodies can partner with these entities to establish a planned and reasonable course of action based on the current and expected future situations.
Accreditation bodies use a risk-based approach to determine the oversight approach that is most appropriate for a specific scope of accreditation and accredited entity. Can the accreditation body obtain the required confidence in operation of the accredited entity through remote assessment? Can the accreditation body still meet the requirements of international accreditation by conducting other surveillance activities outside of on-site assessment? This is not a simple one-size-fits-all approach but has been implemented on a smaller scale when dealing with natural and manmade disasters.
Jason Stine, ANAB Senior Director of Accreditation, is in charge of accreditation activities relating to testing laboratories and supporting programs. He has worked for ANAB and been qualified as a lead assessor for more than 15 years.
Stine has a degree in mechanical engineering technology from Purdue University and more than 10 years technical experience working in accredited testing laboratories. He is involved with technical organizations such as ASTM, ASQ, SAE, AOAC, and ACIL and works closely with many state and federal agencies on technical and accreditation-related programs.
Stine represents ANAB nationally and internationally with APAC, IAAC, ILAC, and NACLA. He is a qualified ISO/IEC 17011 APAC lead evaluator and regularly participates on evaluation teams performing international evaluations of accreditation bodies worldwide.
