Product Certification
A product might be verified to comply with a specification or stamped with a specification number. This does not, by itself, indicate that the item is fit for any particular use. The person or group of persons who own the certification scheme (i.e., engineers, trade unions, building code writers, government, industry, etc.) have the responsibility to consider the choice of available specifications, choose the correct ones, set qualification limits, and enforce compliance with those limits. The end users of the product have the responsibility to use the item correctly. Products must be used in accordance with their listing for certification to be effective.
Product certification is often required in sensitive industry and marketplace areas where a failure could have serious consequences, such as negatively affecting the health and welfare of the people or person using that product. For example, certification is stringent in aerospace applications, since the demands for low weight tend to lead to high stress on components, requiring appropriate metallurgy and accuracy in manufacturing. Other sensitive product area examples include food, pharmaceuticals, healthcare products, dangerous goods, electrical equipment and products that have RF emissions such as computers and cellular telephones.
The process for certification of a product is generally summed up in four steps:
Application (including testing of the product)
Evaluation (does the test data indicate that the product meets qualification criteria)
Decision (does a second review of the product application concur with the Evaluation)
Surveillance (does the product in the marketplace continue to meet qualification criteria)
In many instances, prior to applying for certification, a product supplier will send a product to a testing laboratory (some certification schemes require the product to be sent out for testing by the product certifier instead). When the product to be certified is received at the testing laboratory, it is tested in accordance with the laboratory’s internal procedures and with the methods listed in the test standards specified by the certification scheme. The resulting data collected by the testing laboratory, and is then forwarded either back to the manufacturer, or directly to the product certifier.
The product certifier then reviews the product supplier’s application information, including the testing data.[1] If the certifier’s evaluation[1] concludes that the test data shows that the product meets all required criteria as listed in the certification scheme, and the decision maker(s) of the product certifier concur with the evaluation,[1] then the product is deemed “certified” and is listed in a directory that the Product certifier is required to keep.[1] ISO Guide 65 requires[1] that the final decision to grant or not grant certification be made only by a person or group of persons not involved in the evaluation of the product.
Products often need periodic recertification, also known as surveillance. This requirement is typically identified within the certification scheme that the product is certified to. Certification bodies may require product suppliers to perform some sort of surveillance activity,[1] such as pulling sample products from the marketplace for testing,[4][5] in order to maintain their “listed” or “certified” status. Other examples of Surveillance activities include surprise audits of the manufacturing plant, supervision of the manufacturing and/or testing process,[6] or a simple paperwork submittal from the supplier to the product certifier to ensure that the certified product has not changed. Other causes for recertification may include complaints issued against the product’s functionality, which would require removal from the marketplace, and expiration of the original certification. These lists of examples are by no means all inclusive.
Some certification schemes, or the product certifiers that operate those Schemes, may require that the product supplier operate a Quality Management System registered to ISO 9000, or that the testing be performed by a laboratory accredited to ISO 17025.[7] The decision to set these requirements is most often made by the person or group which owns the Certification Scheme.
Certification marks and listings of certified products
Certified products are typically endorsed with a certification mark provided by the product certifier. Issuance of a certification mark is at the discretion of the individual product certifier. ISO Guide 65 does not require the product certifier to offer a certification mark in the event that a certificate is offered. When certification marks are issued and used on products, they are usually easy to see and enable users to track down the certification listings to determine the criteria that the product meets, and whether or not the listing is still active.
An active certification listing must minimally include indication of[1] the following information:
The specific product or type of product certified
The qualification standard that the product is judged to meet
The date of certification (and if applicable, its expiration)
Product certifiers may choose to include much more information than that listed above, but ISO Guide 65 specifies the bare minimum which must be made available regarding the certification status of a product.
These listings are typically used by an Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ), such as a municipal building inspector, fire prevention officer, or electrical inspector, to compare the product’s use or installation with the intent of the rating by testing. In order to comply with the code, the product listing must be “active”, as products and companies can become “de-listed” due to re-testing showing that a product no longer meets qualification criteria, or a business decision by the manufacturer.
The widespread availability of the Internet has led to a new kind of certification for websites. Website certifications exist to certify the website’s privacy policy, security of their financial transactions, suitability for minors, among many other acceptability characteristics. In broadcast engineering, transmitters and radio antennas often must by certified by the country’s broadcasting authority. In the United States, this certification was once called “type acceptance” by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and applied to most services except amateur radio due to its inherent homebrew nature. Today the FCC requires[5] all testing of transmitters and antennas to be performed in a laboratory accredited to ISO 17025, with that laboratory being part of the overall organization that houses the Product Certification Body (TCB).