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Laboratory Excellence and Accreditation

Decision Rules and Statements of Conformity

When a laboratory states that a result passes or fails a specification, it has made a decision about a measurement that carries uncertainty, and the rule governing that decision has to be agreed with the customer before the work starts. This course covers those rules. Delegates work through simple acceptance, guard banding and the shared and specific risk approaches, calculate the probability of a false accept and a false reject, and select a rule proportionate to the consequence of getting it wrong. The customer conversation is treated as part of the method, since a decision rule imposed after a result is a dispute waiting to happen. The course closes on wording a conformity statement that says exactly what was decided.

2 day course

Course objectives

  • Explain why a conformity statement is a decision under uncertainty
  • Apply simple acceptance, guard banding and risk based decision rules
  • Calculate the probability of a false accept and a false reject
  • Select a rule proportionate to the consequence of a wrong decision
  • Agree a decision rule with a customer before work begins
  • Word a conformity statement so it says exactly what was decided
  • Handle a result that falls inside the guard band

Who should attend

  • Technical signatories and laboratory managers
  • Quality managers in testing and calibration laboratories
  • Analysts issuing conformity statements
  • Customers and specifiers who receive them
  • Auditors and assessors

Course outline

  1. 01Conformity as a decision under uncertainty
  2. 02Simple acceptance and its hidden risk
  3. 03Guard banding
  4. 04Shared risk and specific risk approaches
  5. 05Calculating false accept and false reject probability
  6. 06Choosing a rule against consequence
  7. 07Agreeing the rule with the customer
  8. 08Wording the statement, and the result inside the guard band

Scheduled sessions

Scheduled sessions for Decision Rules and Statements of Conformity
DatesVenueFormatPriceRegister
15 to 16 October 2026OnlineOnlineR6,500 per delegate
23 to 24 November 2026Kigali, RwandaClassroomUSD 795 per delegate
30 November to 1 December 2026Gaborone, BotswanaClassroomR11,950 per delegate
8 to 9 March 2027Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaClassroomUSD 795 per delegate
18 to 19 March 2027Pretoria, South AfricaClassroomR11,950 per delegate
30 to 31 March 2027Nairobi, KenyaClassroomUSD 795 per delegate

Decision Rules and Statements of Conformity

From R6,500

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