National carmaker PROTON has achieved another important milestone on its journey to build high quality vehicles. The company’s in house testing facilities located in Shah Alam, collectively known as Proton Test Centre, received ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation from Jabatan Standard Malaysia (Department of Standards Malaysia), a department under the umbrella of the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI).
The certificate of accreditation was presented to PROTON by Shaharul Sadri Alwi, Director General of the Department of Standards Malaysia and was received by Hazrin Fazail Haroon, Director of Group Engineering, PROTON.
MS ISO/IEC 17025:2017 is a standard that measures the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. This standard is used by testing and calibration laboratories to develop quality management systems and to assess their own competence. Certification consists of measuring and ensuring testing results meet the required levels over a set length of time while documentation requirements to conform consists of a quality manual, standard operating procedures and work instruction flows, just to name a few.
As ISO 17025 is a globally recognized standard accreditation, it not only provides proof of the reliability of results as well as the integrity, competence, and overall quality of Proton Test Centre, it also allows the facility to meet the testing requirement for vehicles co-developed with Geely and even opens up the possibility of conducting testing for other Geely models.
“The accreditation received by Proton Test Centre is recognition for the hard work put in by the engineering and testing teams at PROTON to elevate our level of technical capability to be in line with our partner, Geely. It also allows us to reduce our product development costs as we no longer need to send our parts to be tested overseas and will help better manage our timelines too.
“Since Proton Test Centre was established, it has been our goal to receive MS ISO/IEC 17025:2017. With the accreditation, the test centre now meets both the technical competence requirements and management system requirements that are necessary for it to consistently deliver technically valid test results and calibrations. Ultimately, this will result in better quality Proton vehicles, which will benefit our valued customers,” said Hazrin Fazail Haroon.