Sofeast's head of New Product Development and resident product reliability expert, Andrew Amirnovin, provides this introduction to UL certification. You'll learn what this testing is for, the kinds of products involved, who requires it, and more. Listen to this episode. Hit play below: 🎧 BONUS: UL Compliance. Does YOUR product need a UL certification? What is UL? UL focuses on evaluating product safety. We work a lot with consumer electronics, and so … [Read more...]
Planning for Quality & Compliance at the Product Design Stage: 3 Topics You MUST Focus On
A reader asked what he should pay attention to when he starts to work on a new product in order to avoid a very large “dumb tax” in the future. This is a good question, as there are many activities to undertake that will help your product be compliant and have quality and reliability that reaches or exceeds your and your customers' expectations once it has been produced. I recently wrote about the typical NPI process we follow with clients and its many constituent activities in this post: … [Read more...]
How to Check Material Quality To Ensure Product Safety
We recently published a guest article written by Brad Pritts, one of the most experienced quality professionals I know, on the Sofeast Blog -- that article is Can I trust Chinese steel products? It is a great case study. Unfortunately, I can't write anything similar about our clients' projects because of strict NDAs, and there aren't many good studies publicly available on the internet. So I'll share some of his points from that post here and add some of my own comments... … [Read more...]
Who’s liable for product safety, buyer or manufacturer? [Podcast]
![Who's liable for product safety, buyer or manufacturer? [Podcast]](https://qualityinspection.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/WhosliableforproductsafetybuyerormanufacturerPodcast-1140x445.jpeg)
In this episode… Renaud Anjoran is joined by two guests in this episode, Clive Greenwood and Andrew Wilson of WWMG associates, and they're going to get to the bottom of who is liable for product safety issues. Some importers work with manufacturers in China and make certain assumptions about their level of liability, especially if the manufacturer has been involved in product design and development. It depends on a number of things, such as who has the design authority and who issues the design … [Read more...]
Common Compliance Gaps & Loopholes With ‘Made In China’ Products [Podcast]
In this episode... Renaud Anjoran is joined by Clive Greenwood, an expert in product compliance to discuss the issues with compliance that most importers face and some compliance gaps and 'loopholes' to be aware of. Many people buy products from China (or elsewhere) without checking if they are compliant with their country's rules and regulations. This means that a lot of products are being Just hit the play button to start listening..! Listen to the episode right here … [Read more...]
Product Safety When Buying from China: Avoid Negligence
Dan Harris wrote an article about product safety (How to Reduce Your Foreign Manufactured Product Liability Risks) that will, hopefully, open the eyes of many people to the risks they are exposed to. I thought it particularly interesting because he went through typical questions asked of importers that resold unsafe products: To convince recalcitrant clients of the need for product liability protection for the products they are having made overseas, I sometimes send them the following … [Read more...]
Why Do Importers Need Product Reliability Testing? [Podcast]
![Why Do Importers Need Product Reliability Testing? [Podcast]](https://qualityinspection.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/WhyDoImportersNeedProductReliabilityTestingPodcast-1140x445.jpg)
Product reliability testing is a must for importers who want to avoid risk... 2020 added considerable strain and difficulty to many importers' lives, so today, more than ever, it's so important to implement measures to protect your business against expensive recalls and lawsuits which may occur if your products don't reach expected reliability, quality, and safety standards. Undertaking thorough product reliability testing during the development and manufacturing stages is one such way to … [Read more...]
Why Product Safety, Quality, and Reliability Are Tightly Linked
Recently I read an article that calls for manufacturers to be more proactive in reducing risks for consumers. And they shared this (pretty scary) graph about product safety recalls: Many companies that develop & purchase products wonder how to minimize the risk of a forced recall, which can be extremely expensive. And my advice is simple: Put more effort into assuring the quality and the reliability of your products and it will greatly contribute to their safety. Let's … [Read more...]
Factory Testing Facilities | Vetting Chinese Suppliers (Part 8) [Podcast]
![Factory Testing Facilities | Vetting Chinese Suppliers (Part 8) [Podcast]](https://qualityinspection.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/FactoryTestingFacilitiesVettingChineseSuppliersPart8Podcast-1140x445.jpg)
Why do we look at the factory testing facilities when vetting a Chinese supplier? A great question here is: "How can my supplier know that the product they're manufacturing is good if they're unable to test that they reach my specifications, quality, and safety requirements?" If they have no way of testing or are skipping important tests this is probably a major red flag (unless you're certain that they're sending samples out to a lab to be tested all of the time) as it shows that the … [Read more...]
What Is Compliance Testing? [Podcast]
Why is compliance testing so important for buyers who import products from China? Compliance testing helps assure your product's compliance with your market's product and safety standards. By conducting such testing, you'll be testing whether the product is safe for consumers under normal use, doesn't contain hazardous substances above acceptable levels, and won't be restricted from being imported. Because importers are usually held responsible for any safety problems caused by … [Read more...]