Quality management at the Joint Microbiology Laboratory (Senegal)

With the aim of contributing to the assessment of the quality of processes at the Joint Microbiology Laboratory as part of its ISO 9001 certification, a study was conducted from November 2006 to April 2007, focusing on the processes of isolating and preserving rhizobia and ectomycorrhizal fungi. During the study period, we worked to achieve the following objectives: identify indicators corresponding to the business processes designated within the scope of certification using a monitoring system, build the resulting dashboards, and list the activities deemed critical. We identified a total of twenty-seven indicators that show potential sources of malfunction in the 'Sampling,' 'Isolation,' and 'Nodulation Testing' processes, and we made recommendations for controlling these critical points. In addition, we noted that the risk of contamination is present at all levels. Failure to control these critical points generally results in non-quality costs, which it would be useful to quantify for a better assessment of quality.