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Quality
Quality comes first at the NFI. For the NFI, quality means delivering the products requested by the client with the optimum combination of correctness, usefulness and speed. The substantive objectivity and scientific integrity of the NFI are firm preconditions in this respect.
Quality management system and reports
The forensic-technical information provided by the NFI plays an important role in criminal proceedings. The reliability of this information must therefore be beyond any doubt. That is why the NFI applies an accredited quality management system.
The quality management system requires that activities are carried out in accordance with established procedures and methods and it checks activities against these procedures and regulations. The system monitors the progress of the entire work process; from receipt of the application to the report to the client.
A deviation from the established process is filed as a report, including the corrective measure that is implemented to resolve the deviation before a product is delivered to the client. This is how the NFI prevents potential mistakes from ending up in the end product and ensures that the quality of the production process is continuously of a very high standard. Reports are an essential instrument to guarantee and improve quality.
Accreditation
Naturally it is very important for clients that the quality of the NFI’s services can be demonstrated. This is done by means of an assessment by the Dutch Accreditation Council, which is an independent institute. The NFI has been accredited by the Dutch Accreditation Council since 1994, under number L146. The accreditation is based on ISO/IEC-17025. The areas for which the NFI is accredited can be found on the website of the Dutch Accreditation Council.
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Audits
Each year, an external audit is conducted and the Dutch Accreditation Council tests whether the NFI still satisfies the requirements for accreditation. The NFI also carries out its own audits (internal audits and management reviews). In addition, fellow institutes are asked to conduct reviews and the NFI takes part in external collaborative studies. This latter quality instrument enables the NFI to compare its own results with those of other laboratories and identify and acknowledge any (systematic) errors.
ISO standard
Within the ISO/IEC-17025 standard there are three main organisational aspects in designing and optimizing the operating processes. These three aspects are:
- The quality of the organisation
- The professionalism of the employees
- The quality of the product
In practice this means that demands are defined on the basis of ISO/IEC-17025 for:
- The organisation
- The relationship and communication with clients
- The employees
- The examination methods
- The instruments (the examination equipment)
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Scientific and legal testing
Besides process-based testing of the products and services of the NFI, scientific and legal (quality) testing also takes place. This testing mainly examines the scientific quality, consistency and integrity of the forensic examination. The readability of the examination reports is also important; the client must be able to understand what is written in the reports.
