How the Product Certification Process can eliminate the Need for Recalls
The last five years have been a chaotic one for the hardware and automotive industries which have witnessed high profile product recalls. In recent times, Samsung’s note7 recall debacle and Volkswagen's emission issues come to mind on how even the largest corporations fall victim to human error when designing a product.
This means small sized manufacturers and start-ups are even more at risk of making certain errors when developing a product but in their case, small businesses usually do not have the resources to survive through such failures. And the product certification life-cycle are the measures put in place to ensure products coming into a country or produced/used in a country are manufactured to meet certain safety standards and principles. Therefore, to eliminate the difficult process of having to deal with a product recall and start over again, one must take advantage of the following benefits the product certification process has to offer:
Enabling Your Product meet Regulation Requirements
The first step to manufacturing a product which will be accepted by the state where you intend to offer that product as an item for sale is going through the certification process. This means you have to learn about all the rules, regulations and policies guarding the products in your market niche. Acquiring this knowledge is the first step to proofing your product against the dreaded possibility of a recall.
Therefore, it is imperative for products in the hardware sector to follow packaging rules, electricity policies—when dealing with integrated batteries—and other regulations guiding its acceptance into a community. If these processes are followed, then having your product thoroughly vetted and certified leaves you with only the task of selling them on the market. It is also important to note that achieving the CE marking for a European country means your product will be accepted by a majority of others thereby saving you the trouble of pursuing certification marks from multiple countries.
Understanding the Required Specification for Production Materials
All products including yours are made up of various parts, materials and pieces which are put together to make a functional whole. Therefore, most regulatory bodies put checks and balances in place to ensure that only products with accepted parts can pass them. Therefore, during the development stage of your project, it is important to choose and use the best material from accredited suppliers to provide you with the parts you require.
Therefore, a successful production life-cycle also involves developing a positive relationship with suppliers. This relationship is quite important for it ensures that an understanding that defines the quality you expect is reached and adhered to thereby reducing the possibility of making use of sub-standard items to develop your products. Therefore, when making use of materials from foreign suppliers, you must ensure that the standards of these materials meet the important regulations that the product regulators are looking for.
Including the Recall Test Procedures in your Production Life-cycle
It is also important to understand the product certification and recall process in detail in order to know what your product is up against to get a certification mark. Therefore, it is recommended that you conduct a mock recall procedure on your products with the aim of determining how well it will do when the official certification and testing process is administered.
If you do not have the tools needed to conduct a mock recall process, do not be disheartened for there are several third-party organizations that can provide you with these services at a fixed price. This gives you a better idea of what to expect when your product goes under review. Lastly, this keeps you on your toes every time the production cycle is initiated. To learn more about what the product certification process is all about, you can go through this article written specifically on the certification process.
Ensuring Quality Control Standards are integrated into Manufacturing Processes
As stated earlier, a product is always made up of different parts and materials that are usually provided by different suppliers. Therefore to ensure that only the best materials are used, you must ensure your production cycle includes an internal quality control policy that drives production. This control process must be considered by manufacturers who deal with the creation of high volume products also known as mass production.
The quality control process to be employed during mass production includes introducing sampling plans for evaluating a percentage of every material that comes into the factory. This ensures that all your products meet your own internal quality control measures and should be considered as the first step to passing the certification process needed for a mark. It also plays an important role in reducing the possibility of a recall.
Setting up a Recall Management Team
Sadly, in some cases, even the best prepared plan come apart in the end and ultimately leaves your product vulnerable to being recalled. This makes planning for the possibility of a recall, a priority for business owners in the manufacturing industry. The importance of this team cannot be overestimated for it provides an organizational with the level-head needed to handle the internal crisis that comes with a recalled product.
Also, the recall management team will be tasked with conducting the required tests needed to identify the weakness and previously unidentified issues that led to the initial recall. This research gives your production team the information and leverage needed to get things right during the next manufacturing phase.
Pursuing the right approach to manufacturing product involved taking all these procedures into consideration for they are designed to help you avoid the wasted time, capital and effort that come with a recall.
