How do I get started? I want to help a company get ISO compliant and they don't have a calibration system in place. They are a machine shop with standard gages such as calipers, indicators, etc. What can be 'calibrated' in house to gage blocks and standard measurements? What has to be done out of house? How are intervals established? What's the quickest way to get up to speed on this topic?
Calibration and ISO 9000
Once you get the what and how sorted out, you will need a good tool to track, schedule, and keep records. Of course you will need this for not only equipment, but documents, corrective actions, etc to fully comply with ISO 9000.
Here's an animated tutorial which might help get you started.
http://www.theleanmachine.com/Equipment.htm
David
Metrology from scratch
While a good spreadsheet or calibration software will go a long way to aiding in the establishment of a calibration system, this is only one small portion of what will be needed. Several companies (Mitutoyo is one) sell canned calibration procedures. I have used them in the past as a guide for my own procedures, but I have never used one as purchased. I would contact my local gage house and enlist their assistance with determining what should/could be calibrated in house and what should be sent out.
My company offers an web-based gage management software that we monitor and enter the data. The customer has access to only their gages and calibration records. I am confident that we can be of assistance @ www.metrologyrx.com. You may pick and choose how much of our services are required. I have set up 4 calibration programs (one military compliant, one QS 9000 compliant and two ISO 17025 compliant) complete with environmentally controlled laboratories, so I know the road you are going down. I will help you as much as I can. I had to go it alone, so I don't want you to follow in my footsteps. You can contact me through my website if you need help.
I wish you the best of luck!
ISO Compliance in Calibration
I recently walked a company through ISO 9001 registration. I purchased an 82 piece set of gage blocks, which I have calibrated externally. All calipers, micrometers, height gages, and indicators are calibrated internally. All you need to perform internal calibration is a relatively clean, stable environment, and enough knowledge of the gages to use them effectively. The only exception would be for extremely tight tolerance equipment. There are lots of good calibration programs out there; I purchased one for $1200.00 that works very well. Intervals should be established by frequency of use, harshness of environment, past history, and potential cost/impact of an out of calibration condition. If the gages are subject to lots of vibration, dirt, rough handling, you might start with a short interval - monthly or quarterly. Over time, you can increase the interval if you show a history of no failures. Because of my past experience, and the low impact nature of my business, I set my initial interval at 2 years on calipers. You might google "elsmar cove" for more direction/info, or find another quality guy blog to ask questions, etc.
Calibration
Purchase the calibraiton program Gage Trak
It's easy to get set up and user friendly
All of our calipers, mics, & ht gages are calibrated in house
GETTING COMPLIANT
Assuming they have more then a handful of devices, they will likely need some gage (inventory & calibration) and R&R / MSA software. You can certainly do this in-house with a spreadsheet or database, but if time and accuracy is critical, I would recommend you evaluate some of the software products on the market today.