I attended a technical seminar entitled “Worldwide Product Certification” which was organized by Hong Kong Branch Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering Section of IET, Hong Kong Chapter of Product Safety Engineering Society (PSES) and MILES Alumni Association of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on 27th March 2010. Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) is one of supporting organization.
Since Hong Kong Council for Testing and Certification (HKCTC) has established by HKSAR government on 17 Sep 2009, this seminar aims to introduce the HKAS and worldwide product certification scheme to the participants.
Ir. S.L. Mak (OC Chairman, committee member of IET-MIES, IEEE-PSES) gave a welcome speech.
Then Prof. H.C. Man (Asso. Dean, Faculty of Engineering, Prof and Head, Industrial and Systems Engineering Dept., PolyU) gave an opening speech of the seminar and he said that there were about 300 companies in this industry. The 3rd party certification was important in the industry.
Group Photo of organizers, guest speakers and supporting organizations
Ir. Terence S.S. Chan (Executive Administrator – Hong Kong Accreditation Service (HKAS), Innovative and Technology Commission (ITC), HKSAR Government) was the first speak and his topic was “Hong Kong Certification Body Accreditation Scheme”.
Mr. Chan introduced the four objectives of HKAS as follows:
i) Support the development of the testing and certification industry
ii) Upgrade the industry standard
iii) Promote confidence of testing, certification and inspection service from Hong Kong
iv) Facilitate international trade
v) Support local community
Then he briefed three schemes in HKAS, they are:
i) Laboratory Test (HOKLAS, started in May 1985)
ii) Certification (HKCAS, started in Nov 1998)
iii) Inspection (HKIAS, started in Dec 1999)
He also explained what the production certification is.
Comparison between Testing, Inspection and Certification
The benefits of product certification were included Buyers, Sellers and Regulators. Buyers were able to identify quality products and reduce acceptance testing cost. Sellers used it as marketing tool and provided confidence in its own system. Regulators monitored safety and conformity of products at low administration cost through private sector resource to achieve regulatory objectives.
Until now, there were 5 accredited product certification bodies for the following products:
- Production and supply of concrete
- Fire protection products, fire doors, fire partitions, heat soaked tempered glass
- Standard sands
- Mobile communication devices
The second speaker was Mr. Raymond Cheung (Chief Executive, Hong Kong Certification Ltd.) and his presentation entitled “Development of Product Conformity Certification Scheme in Hong Kong”. He extracted the definition of product certification from ISO/IEC Guide 67 as follows.
Product certification system: Rules, procedures and management for carrying out third-party product conformity assessment.
Production certification scheme: Product certification system related to specific products to which the same specified requirements, specific rules and procedures apply.
He discussed relevant international documents for Product Certification below.
- ISO/IEC Guide 67:2004
- ISO/IEC Guide 65:1996
- ISO/IEC Guide 28:2004
- ISO/IEC Guide 53:2005
- ISO/IEC 17030:2003
- ISO/IEC 17020:1998
- ISO/IEC 17025:2005
- ISO/IEC 17000:2004
He introduced the model of Product Certification.
Then he shared the five step of establishing a Product Scheme.
Step 1 – Determine the market need
Step 2 – Consider alternative approaches
Step 3 – Determine crucial characteristics
Step 4 – Establish the product scheme
Some product certification cases were shared.
The third speaker was Mr. OR (柯燈明) (Supervisor, Shenzhen Academy of Metrology and Quality Inspection (SMQ), Shenzhen Bureau of Quality Technical Supervision; 深圳市質量技術監督局深圳市計量質量檢測研究院玩具檢測部) and his topic was “Recent update of China Compulsory Certification (CCC) 中國產品強制認證)
Mr. Or introduced the China Compulsory Certification (CCC) that it combined CCEE and CCIB mark because of WTO requirement. Therefore, a unified national product list, unified standard, technique requirement and implementation procedure, unified mark and price were developed.
Until now, CCC product list had 23 categories included 172 types of product. Those products in the list could be sold in mainland if and only if the product certified by authorized body with CCC mark since 1st June 2007.
The following toys were recorded in CCC list.
Mr. Or briefed the procedure to apply CCC certification of toy below.
Step 1: Certification application
Two authorized body (Certification Centre of Light Industry Council – CCLC and China Quality Certification Centre – CQC) would receive your application.
Step 2: Submit Sample (Testing)
The sample should be submitted to the authorized laboratory based the standard such as GB6675-2003 / GB19865-2005, etc.
Step 3: Factory Audit (only for child car)
Audit included the capability of quality assurance and consistent of product quality.
Step 4: Certification Result and Approval
It included certification information, testing result and factory audit result.
CCC certification sample
Step 5: Apply CCC mark and label
Step 6: Certification Surveillance Audit
In general, the surveillance audit would be performed per 6 months.
The last speaker was Mr. Kevin Chan (Technical Manager, Toys Dept. of Specialized Technology Resources (HK) Ltd.) and his presentation title was “Recent Update of USA toys certification program”.
It was pity that Mr. Kevin Chan’s update was the suspension of the program TIA TSCP. The following were some background of the program extracted from website (
http://www.toyassociation.org/AM/Template.cfm?section=TSCP_Home).
“The Toy Industry Association (TIA) is making the foundational aspects of its Toy Safety Certification Program® (TSCP®) freely available as online resources to help all toy companies, importers and testing laboratories facilitate compliance with the federal Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). The formal certification component of the TSCP is being placed on hold pending further U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) clarification of the law. If conditions change, we will look at how the TSCP program might also need to change to continue to promote enhanced toy safety.”
The last section was panel discussion.
