Accreditation is one of the pillars of a national Quality Infrastructure, as the competence of conformity assessment bodies is assured through accreditation performed by accreditation bodies. To compare the operation of accreditation bodies in Europe and to identify best practices, a management tool, the Process Maturity Benchmarking Tool, was developed and validated by applying it to European accreditation bodies. The benchmarking project comprised two major phases: in the first phase, the processes of accreditation bodies were systematically analyzed. A process map was developed, and processes of special relevance were identified and underpinned by indicators. In the second phase, the practical applicability of the theoretical model was demonstrated by analyzing the processes of eight European accreditation bodies. The results of this comparative assessment were subsequently discussed in a workshop with experts from those accreditation bodies, giving the opportunity to identify best practices. This article has a twofold objective. First, to present a method to benchmark European accreditation bodies, based on the European Foundation for Quality Management excellence model. The successful application of the Process Maturity Benchmarking Tool gives evidence that it is a suitable and capable management tool to assess the processes of the European accreditation bodies and to benchmark them. Second, the article presents the results of the first adaption of the Process Maturity Benchmarking Tool. A general trend of process maturity was identified: while processes based on stakeholder involvement tend to have an overall lower maturity on average, internal processes are more mature.

认证是国家质量基础设施的支柱之一，因为通过认证机构进行的认证可确保合格评定机构的能力。为了比较欧洲认证机构的运作并确定最佳实践，管理工具是过程成熟度基准工具通过将其应用于欧洲认证机构进行开发和验证。基准测试项目包括两个主要阶段：在第一阶段，对认证机构的流程进行了系统地分析。制定了过程图，并确定了具有特殊意义的过程并以指标为基础。在第二阶段，通过分析八个欧洲认证机构的流程，论证了该理论模型的实际适用性。随后在与那些认证机构的专家举行的研讨会中讨论了这种比较评估的结果，从而有机会确定最佳做法。本文有双重目标。首先，根据欧洲质量管理卓越基金会的模型，提出一种基准化欧洲认证机构的方法。流程成熟度基准测试工具提供了证据，它是评估欧洲认证机构的流程并对其进行基准测试的合适且功能强大的管理工具。其次，本文介绍了流程成熟度基准测试工具的第一次改编的结果。确定了流程成熟度的总体趋势：虽然基于利益相关者参与的流程平均总体上趋向于较低的成熟度，但内部流程却更为成熟。