Placing a calibration sticker with someone other than your initials

Greetings! I came here to seek help answering a recent problem we ran into in my calibration group. We hired a new guy who put the wrong due date on a piece of temp measurement equipment. Being that he's new I thought I would help him out and put a new sticker on the equipment with his initials and the correct due date figuring the cal cert is where the proper documentation lives along with traceability. More training would ensue. Well he got all bent out of shape, went to the supervisor and screamed "falsification of documentation." I've had inspectors ask me to put calibration stickers on equipment with other peoples initials on it so I thought this would be fine. Their reasoning was that you are only indicating who performed the calibration. The resolution was to indicate on the sticker that you were involved in the calibration like "D.G. for R.M." I still disagree with this since I had nothing to do with the actual calibration. If anyone has some input here I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

Stormyfour20,

I can't see what the problem is. If he did the calibration does it matter who wrote the calibration sticker?

Are you in a regulated field that could forbid this type of behaviour? Is that behaviour forbidden in ISO/IEC 17025? Is it against your own work instructions?

Initials on a calibration sticker indicate who performed the calibration. It's just an indication that a calibration event took place - do you have documented information of the individual who calibrated the item, such as a cert or database? That's really all you need. The sticker is just a reference to your documented information.

Thanks for the quick response folks. Yes we have a calibration data base and electronic certifications which replaced the paper version a few years back. The cal cert obviously indicates the standards used, procedure used and measurements. I'm sorry I don't have an answer to whether we follow/use ISO/IEC 17025. I'd have to run that by my Quality group.

Oh, now I understand. No we are not in a regulated field. We produce fiber optic cable.

Stormyfour20 said:

Oh, now I understand. No we are not in a regulated field. We produce fiber optic cable.

Click to expand...

Why do the stickers need to be initialed? You should be able to check the record to see who did the calibration.

I think the "new guy" overreacted. Seems to me you were correcting an error, not doing something fraudulent. As Johnny said, unless you can find where you violated some procedure or regulation, I see no harm.

Now, many times a company will have a procedure for correcting records that involves something like putting a line through the error data so it is still dechiperable and writing the correct info beside it and initialing and dating it, but most cal stickers are far too small to do that to. Maybe it is something that could be covered procedurally there in case it happens again.

This is an interesting topic.
Requirements for calibration labels go back to MIL STD 45662A and ANSI Z540-1.
They both state that the label's purpose was to indicate the calibration status of the unit, and also was to include the Date Calibrated, Calibration Due Date, and any limitations on the calibration.
Newer standards like Z540.3 and ISO 17025 have the same general requirements, but don't specifically call for dates.
That's it.
No requirement for identifying who performed the calibration.
If you have an internal requirement for more information, that's up to you.
As for the initials, that indicates who performed the calibration. It is not a signature that you would be tampering with. No fraud if you replace the label. If it was a certificate that was signed, that would be a different story.

If you have written in your calibration procedure than it's up to you otherwise there is no requirement for identifying the individual who performed the calibration.