About PJLA
Perry L. Johnson, a world leader in quality, established Perry Johnson Laboratory Accreditation, Inc. (PJLA) in 1999. PJLA is a private third-party accreditation body based in the United States that validates the competency of testing and calibration laboratories, inspection bodies, reference material producers, and sampling organizations through the use of international and national standards. PJLA is fully supported by our stockholder, Mr. Perry L. Johnson.
Additionally, PJLA is affiliated with Perry Johnson Laboratory Accreditation NP, Inc. (PJLANP) a Michigan nonprofit organization established in 2016. This organization, in combination with PJLA, is a non-profit establishment providing accreditation services to Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) where only non-profit organizations can provide such services. PJLA is the sole member of PJLANP.
We are committed to meeting and exceeding the requirements and expectations of our clients in terms of the quality of the services we provide.
PJLA Rights and Duties as an Accreditation Body
As an accrediting body, PJLA is required to adhere to ISO/IEC 17011:2017 Conforming Assessment – General Requirements for Accreditation Bodies Accrediting Conformity Assessment Bodies. PJLA’s adherence to this standard is demonstrated through peer evaluations performed by international recognition bodies. PJLA is a MRA Signatory of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and of the Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC) for calibration laboratories, testing laboratories, medical testing laboratories, inspection bodies, proficiency testing providers, and reference material producers. At no such time does PJLA offer consultancy services to CABs.
PJLA is required to adhere to the rules of ILAC, APAC, national recognition organizations, and regulatory specific requirements. Due to this requirement, CABs accredited or in the process of becoming accredited shall adhere to the policies of PJLA including our accreditation procedure and accreditation symbol procedure. Specific criteria and obligations of both PJLA and CABS can be found in SOP-1, PJLA Accreditation Procedure along with other related documents as listed on the document section of our website.
Impartiality
PJLA recognizes the importance of impartiality when carrying out accreditation services, manages conflict of interest and ensures objectivity of its accreditation activities. PJLA ensures that all personnel including committees act objectively and are free from any undue commercial, financial or other pressures that could compromise impartiality.
PJLA and our Related Bodies
The brand name Perry Johnson serves many different types of quality-based organizations. This includes a related body of PJLA, Perry Johnson Registrars, Inc. (PJR). PJR is a full-service certification body offering various quality system certification services. PJLA stemmed from PJR, due to the growing need of laboratory accreditation. PJLA and PJR are separate legal entities, offering separate services and adhere to separate standards (i.e., ISO/IEC 17011:2017 versus ISO/IEC 17021:2015). Although we are separate organizations, PJLA and PJR continue to have a relationship that shares resources including assessment staff. This allows for clientele to utilize similar assessors and to eliminate excessive travel expenses. At no such time does PJLA or PJR reduce assessment time or perform less comprehensive assessments because of this relationship.
In various accreditation standards offered by PJLA, the ability to assess Option B is available. This option potentially reduces the time spent on reviewing a CAB’s quality management system when they are already certified by an IAF accredited certification body to ISO 9001:2015 based standards. This option is provided to all qualified CABs and not just those certified by our related body, PJR.
PJLA Services in the UK
PJLA is not the UK government-designated National Accreditation Body (NAB) under the Accreditation Regulations 2009 as amended by UK Statutory Instrument (S.I. 2019/696). Accreditation services requiring recognition under certain regulatory schemes may require accreditation services of the designated NAB.
