What To Do If Your Calibration Provider Lets You Down 

There are few things more frustrating for a manufacturer than realizing your calibration provider is no longer delivering on its promise. Maybe they’re suddenly missing TAT deadlines or commitments, communication is suffering, they’re shuttering service teams nearby, or you’re facing a variety of challenges with them that result in losing confidence in their results. 

Regardless, it leaves you with more work and more risk, and necessitates a change.  

Let’s dig in a bit to explore why companies switch calibration providers and what to watch for when a switch is unavoidable. 

Why Companies Switch Providers 

Switching calibration providers is rarely convenient. It introduces administrative burden, disrupts long-standing routines, and often feels like a cost without a clear return.  

But when handled correctly, a vendor change doesn’t have to be chaotic and painful. With the right planning, what begins as a short-term pain point can become an opportunity to improve efficiency, reduce hidden risks, and strengthen your entire calibration program.  

Most companies don’t decide to switch calibration vendors without a strong reason. Common triggers include: 

• Service performance such as  missed turnaround times, late cancellations, poor communication, or even equipment damage. 

• Compliance concerns like calibration errors, inconsistent results, or a lack of accreditation. 

• Contract cycles for government and aerospace programs that require rebidding. 

• Vendor location changes or closures that eliminate access to a localservice team, forcing customers to rely on shipping, with added time, cost, and risk. 

Some risks loom larger than others. 

Either way, when it’s time for a change, preparation is key. 

Preparing for a Transition   

The real danger lies in approaching a transition unprepared,or worse, being forced into one by a last-minute loss of a service team or declining service performance. In those scenarios, production schedules, compliance requirements, and quality standards are suddenly at risk.  

Decisions made in haste can create costly ripple effects, such as calibration gaps, failed audits, unplanned downtime, or unanticipated logistics challenges that linger long after the switch. 

This is where foresight and disciplined vendor evaluation matter. Because the decision isn’t only about who can complete calibrations, but who can deliver reliability, consistency, and trust over time.  

Companies depend on calibration at every stage of the product lifecycle, from design to validation to production. If the data behind those stages isn’t trustworthy, the entire process is compromised. And accreditation and recordkeeping are what auditors, regulators, and ultimately your customers depend on 

When a provider’s approach and values align with your organization’s mission, whether that’s patient safety, flight reliability, or product quality, the relationship becomes an extension of your quality system. 

By focusing on mission alignment, accreditation, and long-term partnership, manufacturers can avoid the pitfalls of rushed vendor changes. More importantly, they can use the transition to build a more resilient calibration program and create one that protects compliance and positions them for smoother audits, reduced downtime, and stronger operational confidence. 

When evaluating a new calibration partner, the questions you ask up front can prevent costly surprises later.   

Too often, manufacturers assume that all providers are essentially the same, only to find out during an audit or production delay that critical requirements were overlooked. Choosing the right partner requires querying their reliability, compliance, and long-term alignment with your business. 

Local Service Team   

Location matters more than many teams realize. Having instruments collected, safeguarded, and returned by trained calibration staff offers far more than convenience. It ensures that sensitive and specialized equipment can be managed locally by qualified technicians using the right standards and processes. And it helps that companies do not have to manage shipping themselves, too.  

Without local service capability, equipment must be packaged, insured, and tracked, all of which consumes internal staff time that could have been spent on production. And the internal staff may not have the same level of training one would expect from dedicated equipment delivery personnel. 

Shipping by external freight carriers also adds expense and risk. Unlike calibration providers, freight carriers don’t handle instruments with the same rigor or accountability and often cannot guarantee the environmental conditions or handling controls that sensitive tools require. 

Calibration underpins design, validation, and production quality. When instruments are misplaced or damaged in transit by freight carriers, it doesn’t just inconvenience a single project. It undermines the trustworthiness of the data that those instruments provide. And when data can’t be trusted, design errors multiply, production stalls, and regulatory risk spikes. 

Imagine this: A precision piece of equipment, worth tens of thousands of dollars, is lost by a shipping company. It could take six months to locate, which means half of the calibration cycle is wasted, and you’re left navigating insurance claims instead of using the tool. Scrambling for a replacement would create both unplanned downtime and compliance exposure that would ripple across the business. 

What looks like a minor inconvenience— “we’ll just ship it out”—can quickly snowball into hidden costs, audit challenges, and production delays. Local handling eliminates much of that risk by keeping instruments close to the teams that depend on them, shortening turnaround times, and ensuring they’re maintained by professionals who understand the technical and regulatory standards behind every measurement. 

Industry Experience 

Industry experience is another differentiator. Each sector brings unique regulatory demands: FDA oversight for medical devices, AS9100 for aerospace, or ISO 9001 for manufacturing. A provider already familiar with your regulatory landscape can anticipate auditor expectations and help avoid costly findings. 

And accurate calibration gives highly regulated manufacturers confidence that their measurements are trustworthy. That confidence reduces the risk of design errors and supports better decisions in process development and part specification. 

Network and Consistency 

Network and consistency matter as well. No single lab can cover every piece of equipment across every discipline. Providers with a broad network can perform the majority of calibrations in-house while managing the exceptions through trusted OEM or third-party partners.  

But the real differentiator is consistency. SIMCO, for example, uses a single business system and a standardized calibration approach across its labs, ensuring uniformity in procedures and documentation.  

This is a critical risk area for manufacturers, as some providers allow each lab to create its own processes, leading to variation in how calibrations are performed, documented, and reported. That kind of inconsistency is exactly what auditors look for and penalize. 

Customer Support and Responsiveness 

Customer support and responsiveness are often underestimated until something goes wrong.  

• How will the provider handle the administrative side of the relationship?  

• Who will manage your account?  

• Will you have a dedicated program manager?  

• How quickly can errors in certificates be corrected?  

In regulated environments, even small clerical mistakes must be resolved quickly and formally. A provider without responsive systems in place can leave you scrambling during an audit. 

Beyond issue resolution, true responsiveness includes proactive oversight, including Regular Program Health Reviews that evaluate performance, documentation accuracy, and service trends. These reviews provide early visibility into recurring issues, instrument reliability, and interval performance so teams can act before problems affect compliance. 

SIMCO integrates these periodic reviews into every managed relationship, ensuring calibration programs remain current, defensible, and continuously improving. That level of attention transforms customer support from a reactive service into an ongoing partnership built on accountability and foresight. 

Stability and Longevity 

Stability and longevity play a role in risk management as well.  

Providers with decades of history, established business and a proven reputation are less likely to disappear from a market or discontinue service teams without notice. This is crucial with so much at stake.  

When providers exit abruptly, customers are left scrambling, often at the worst possible time, which is when production schedules or compliance deadlines are on the line. A partner with staying power is both convenient and insurance against disruption. 

Choosing a calibration provider isn’t about finding the lowest bidder. The goal is to ensure your instruments can be trusted, your documentation withstands scrutiny, and your operations are not derailed by hidden risks.  

Accreditation and Compliance 

Accreditation and compliance should be the first checkpoints.  

An accredited lab is one that meets ISO/IEC 17025 and ANSI/NCSL Z540.1 requirements and has been independently audited for competence. Accreditation ensures every calibration is fully traceable to national or international standards, supported by rigorous documentation and quality controls that demonstrate compliance and reliability. 

Accreditation also gives customers leverage. If issues arise, the accrediting body requires the lab to resolve them, and failure to do so can put its accreditation status at risk.  

Without that safeguard, customers are left with little recourse. And in many cases, labs without accreditation don’t even realize they’re cutting corners, because they “don’t know what they don’t know.”  

The result is often ill-advised or incomplete work, such as a single-point check where the manufacturer specifies a full multi-point procedure. 

Accreditation, industry expertise, network breadth, customer responsiveness, and long-term stability are the markers of a partner who can deliver not just calibration, but confidence. 

Hidden Costs to Watch For 

Beyond calibration prices, hidden costs can surprise companies during a transition. We’ve mentioned a number of these already, but to sum it up in one handy list for your consideration: 

• Shipping and insurance when pickup is not available. 

• Internal labor for logistics and vendor management. 

• Outsourcing fees if a provider can’t handle all your equipment. 

• Misaligned calibration levels, where sticker-only services are provided instead of full data or accreditation. 

And risk-based calibration is often overlooked, which is a mistake, because not every instrument needs the same service level. Companies that fail to make this distinction risk overspending or, worse, underserving on critical equipment. 

The danger is even greater with providers who lack accreditation, as many genuinely don’t realize they’re cutting corners. Without external oversight, some labs leave customers exposed to risks they never intended to take. 

Turning a Transition into an Opportunity 

Switching vendors can feel disruptive, but it’s also a chance to strengthen your calibration program: 

• Adopt a risk-based approach and match calibration depth to equipment use and compliance risk. 

• Improve record-keeping by downloading certificates and maintaining internal backups. 

• Reevaluate vendor support by confirming escalation paths, training, and account management. 

• Invest in long-term partnership with a provider who views calibration as you do. 

Avoid Disruption with Forward Planning 

Switching calibration providers can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to mean disruption. With proper planning, the right checklist, and a partner with accreditation, scale, and a proven track record, transitions can be seamless. 

Keep the emphasis on the real differentiators as you begin your search. At SIMCO, we focus on trust,  precision, accountability, and care. Our approach is disciplined yet deeply human, rooted in technical excellence and a sense of shared responsibility for every measurement we verify.

Manufacturers can be confident not just in their data, but in having a partner who treats calibration as both science and stewardship, as personal, mission-critical work that safeguards lives, compliance, and reputations with every documented result. 

Reach out today for a quote and learn more about working together in the coming months. 

  

Transition Planning Checklist for a Smooth Switch 

Switching providers is a project, and a disciplined checklist minimizes risks: 

1. Inventory equipment: Manufacturer, model numbers, serial numbers, and next calibration due dates. 

1. Download and retain certificates: don’t rely solely on the outgoing provider’s database. 

1. Normalize data: standardize naming and model numbers so vendors can quote and onboard quickly. 

1. Audit and approve new calibration provider: confirm accreditation, quality system, and certificate and label content and format. 

1. Establish and communicate logistics: pickup/delivery schedules, turnaround times, escalation paths, and decision rules. 

1. Update supplier lists: add the new vendor to your Approved Supplier List (ASL). 

1. Secure documentation: contracts, quality agreements, master service agreements. 

1. Phase the transition if possible: avoid bottlenecks by staggering equipment.