Quality Policy

Top management, comprising the Managing Director (Dr. Wai-Lam Cheung), the Technical Director (Dr. Alistair Fenwick), the Operations Director (Ms. Priyanka Menon), and the Quality Manager (Dr. Sunetra Balakrishnan), is collectively responsible for the quality system and personally accountable for the following commitments:

• Consistent good professional practice and quality in all testing services.
• Compliance with ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and with regulatory obligations relevant to each engagement.
• Impartiality and independence, actively identifying and mitigating threats.
• Continual improvement of the management system.
• Full support for the Quality Manager and named Technical Signatories in the discharge of their duties, including the authority to withhold release of non-conforming results.

• On-time delivery ≥ 97 % (rolling 12 months, measured at report release).
• Proficiency-testing z-score |z| ≤ 2 for 100 % of enrolled schemes.
• Client-complaint rate ≤ 0.5 % of released reports.
• Zero data-integrity incidents graded ‘major’ or above.
• Internal-audit closure of findings within 60 days.
• Annual training hours per analyst ≥ 40, including ≥ 4 h on ALCOA+ / data integrity.

• Level 1 — Quality Manual (QMS-000) referencing every controlled document.
• Level 2 — Policies (this document, impartiality, confidentiality, etc.).
• Level 3 — SOPs governing every method, instrument, and process.
• Level 4 — Records: test records, calibration records, training records, deviation logs, corrective-action files.

A formal management review is convened at least annually and additionally on any triggering event (major deviation, adverse audit, significant scope change). The review considers audit results, PT performance, deviation and CAPA trends, complaint and appeal outcomes, changes to regulations, resource needs, and client feedback. Outputs are decisions and documented actions.

Any ALS employee has both the right and the duty to stop work where a quality, integrity, or safety concern arises, and to escalate through the Quality Manager without adverse consequence. This authority is protected by the Whistleblowing Policy (COM-024).

This policy is distributed to every employee and contractor at induction and at each annual retraining. Acknowledgement is recorded in the training file. A signed copy is displayed at the entrance to the laboratory.