Proficiency Testing

Proficiency Testing is the evaluation of participant’s performance against pre-established criteria by means of inter-laboratory comparisons. Proficiency Testing is a Quality Management Tool to control the organization with regard to quality.

All participating laboratories are equipped with identical testing items by the provider of the scheme. The boundary framework is established in advance to the testing procedure. Within a given period of time, all participating laboratories are requested to conduct the testing according to an agreed upon testing regime and to report back the results within a fixed period of time. The results are then analysed and the results are reported back anonymously to all participants in a way that each participant can see the own laboratory’s performance against the statistical values of the entire population of data.

This helps laboratories to compare their performance more objectively against their peers and to identify in which areas improvement potentials can be found. This has several benefits which include the potential to impact the cement and construction industry in Africa.