Risk management approach for testing and calibration laboratories

In the latest revision of the ISO/IEC 17025 standard, General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, published in 2017, the concept of risk-based thinking was introduced in its requirements. Although the new version introduces the concept, procedures to be adopted for the implementation of risk management in testing and calibration laboratories are not addressed. The article is conceptual in nature and summarizes information from the literature to assess the application of reputable risk management models and implement them in laboratories. Furthermore, it includes discussions on the implementation of risk management in the daily laboratory operations in a practical and effective way as per the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025.