Offering Total Quality Assurance
At Intertek, they like to call the laboratory lab test industry production: “We produce tests but we supply Total Quality Assurance”, they say. More in detail, the experts develop ad-hoc strategies in order to manage risks along the whole supply chain and to allow the companies to safely introduce their products into the market.
Intertek constantly invests in new capabilities to support the customers in the best possible way; the latest addition is the complete internalization of the test services concerning the compliance with the requirements of the US market (ASTM F963-17 Toy Safety Standard) and the standards of the ISO 8124 series, compulsory for the markets of Australia and New Zealand. They integrate the support offered to operate in the global markets, such as Canada, China or Persian Gulf countries (GCC), through the network of 1,000 labs in over 100 countries.
Another example of the Lastra a Signa lab’s improvement is Intertek Maison: “We are really proud of the Maison”, says Elena Ruffino, Softlines & Hardlines General Manager Intertek Italy. “It is an 800 square meter innovative and hi-tech ‘house’, conceived as a space where creativity can be unleashed while freeing the innovative potential of the quality brands, which – together with the Intertek technicians – are able to actually design quality.”
“In the Maison”, adds Dario Bianchi, Business Development Manager Intertek Italy for the toy business, “the companies find what is necessary to design and market their products in total safety, introduce new product lines and organize events”.
Many countries have implemented the standards of the World Health Organization in order to assure that toys do not contain toxic substances and have established control bodies to verify the toys’ compliance and rapid alert systems to report dangerous toys and recall them. The European 2009/48 CE Directive sets the safety requirements that toys must be compliant with and outlines the responsibility profiles as regards all the stakeholders. In Europe toy recalls have declined by more than 35% in the last 5 years. Attention and awareness among the industry, consumers and control bodies are increasing, even more so when toys are concerned because it is everybody’s interest to assure that children can play and grow safely.
Photogallery
Web