Is In-House Calibration or Hiring a Calibration Company Right for You?

Your equipment needs to be accurate to perform at its best. When you’re looking for calibration services, you can choose to do it yourself or outsource it to another company. By picking the right kind of calibration services, you can better set your company up for success. Generally, outsourcing calibration is the better option for most companies, as it can save money and deliver more accurate results.

Find out more about the advantages of outsourcing calibration and some of the potential drawbacks of keeping it in-house.

In-House Calibration

In-house calibration refers to a company performing its own calibration of equipment and instruments. Any company that performs in-house calibration will need to have highly-trained engineers who can properly and safely perform the process.

Disadvantages of In-House Calibration

Since in-house calibration requires companies to handle calibration independently, it can have several disadvantages, especially for smaller and medium-sized operations:

• Higher costs: While a large company that performs calibrations can sometimes save some money by completing the process in-house, most companies will find themselves spending too much. Keeping your calibration in-house means you have to pay for machinery, employee training and labs, and all of these requirements can come with high costs. If you don’t constantly use the equipment and labs, you probably won’t be able to justify the expense.
• More training requirements: Anyone who’s going to calibrate equipment needs extensive training to do it safely, which can take staff members away from other tasks and reduce your company’s productivity. Alternatively, you may have to hire calibration technicians with the appropriate training for lab calibration services, leading to a higher payroll for your company.
• Longer turnaround: When a company relies on in-house calibration, they often face a longer turnaround time for calibrating their equipment. Since most companies don’t usually have a dedicated team of workers whose sole task is to calibrate equipment, it can take a long time to complete the process.
• Reduced overall productivity and efficiency: When you have to dedicate your staff to calibration instead of other tasks, you’ll likely see a decrease in your company’s overall productivity and efficiency. Additionally, since in-house calibration often takes longer than outsourced calibration, you may have significant downtime while your team calibrates equipment. This loss in productivity and greater downtime can cause your company to see a decrease in profits.
• Less accurate calibration: A company’s in-house calibration staff will often have other jobs and may not know how to meet a manufacturer’s requirements for calibration frequencies. If these staff members calibrate equipment too often or calibrate them too tight, you can see a loss of the part’s accuracy. Companies may also struggle to meet calibration certification standards, leading to improper calibration. As a result, in-house calibration tends to be less accurate and often causes equipment to malfunction or not perform to its best ability.

Is In-House Calibration Right for You?

Unless you’re a very large company with labs of your own, in-house calibration is likely not a great option for your company. In-house calibration tends to be more costly and can result in lost productivity, so it’s usually better to find an alternative, such as working with a dedicated calibration company.

Hiring a Calibration Company

Since in-house calibration is usually not the best choice for many companies, you might be wondering how you should calibrate your equipment. When you outsource your calibration services, you’ll hire a calibration company to handle your equipment. Usually, you’ll ship your equipment to their labs for calibration, but some companies can also send technicians to your facility to perform calibration services.

Advantages of Hiring a Calibration Company

Instead of handling calibration services yourself, you can turn to a calibration company to handle them for you. When you choose a calibration company, you can save money, receive faster turnaround times, ensure you get verifiable results and have a secure lab environment.

Here’s a closer look at some of the advantages of hiring a calibration company.

1. Save Money

Many companies save money when they choose to outsource calibration services. Since they don’t have to invest in labs and training, they can keep their overall costs lower. A calibration company takes these costs on for you, and you’ll only have to pay for the services you need. Additionally, these companies generally have faster turnaround times and produce more accurate results. By reducing improper calibration and getting your equipment back fast, your company can see greater productivity and profits.

2. Verifiable and Consistent Results

Another excellent advantage of outsourcing calibration is the more verifiable and consistent result you can receive. The best calibration companies are certified by standardization organizations. These certifications ensure these companies provide the most accurate services possible. Additionally, a good calibration company will provide you with reports designed for company audits that verify testing and services performed.

3. Fast Turnaround Times

When you outsource your calibration needs to other companies, you often receive faster turnaround times than if you did it yourself. You can often receive your equipment back in only a few days if you send it out for service. Calibration companies solely focus on calibration, so they regularly deliver faster service than in-house labs staffed with those who might have other priorities.

4. Secure Lab Environment

A calibration lab must meet various strict controls and standards to ensure calibration is as accurate as possible. These strict requirements can be very difficult for companies with in-house services to meet. By outsourcing calibration services, you don’t have to worry about creating a secure lab environment, as the calibration company will already have a lab with specialized equipment and protocols aligning with various standards. Calibration companies’ labs also offer more consistent conditions that ensure your equipment is calibrated to a manufacturer’s standards.

Is Outsourcing Calibration Services Right for You?

Due to the many benefits of hiring a calibration company, outsourcing calibration services is usually the best option for most companies. If you don’t have a large staff and the available cash to run a dedicated lab at your company, you’ll likely want to turn to an experienced calibration company that can take care of your calibration needs for you.

Contact Garber Metrology to Handle Your Calibration Needs

At Garber Metrology, we’re a one-stop shop for calibration services that meet the strictest industry standards. When you send us your equipment, we’ll calibrate it to ensure it has the most accurate outputs possible. Many of our clients love our industry-leading turnaround times and accuracy. When you can’t ship the equipment to us for calibration, we can send a team to perform field calibration at your facility.

If you’re ready to outsource your calibration needs, please contact us today to discuss our precision calibration services and receive a free quote.