I visited this question a few years ago. At one time, we put a copy of the Declaration of Conformity (DOC) in the manual.
This was troublesome. Whenever standards changed, we would have to make a new DOC...and a new manual. It also caused trouble during product development because we couldn't finish the manual until we had the DOC. Seeing as how the DOC is one of the last parts of the compliance process; I became a road-block to completion of the manuals. Whenever an engineer becomes a road-block, it's not long before they are road-kill. We didn't want to pack a copy of the DOC with the products. Given that it takes time to change Bills of Material and shipping instructions; packing DOCs with products carries the risk of providing the customer with either incorrect or out of date information. It also becomes just another item for our shipping department to keep track of. Given the fact that they aren't really enthusiastic about compliance...I'd rather let them work on other issues. Besides, isn't that what the compliance markings on the instruments or packaging are for anyway? We finally settled on this solution. 1. Compliant products carry the markings on either the product, packaging or documentation as recommended in the standards. (Usually on the product itself, unless it is very small.) 2. Our product manuals have page in the front with a reproduction of compliance markings and an explanation. For instance, take CE marking. There is a reproduction of the "CE" logo. Below it is a paragraph stating that "Products bearing the CE mark meet the applicable standards of the EMC and Low Voltage Directives. Declarations of Conformity and Compliance folders may be obtained from xxxxx" At "xxxx" we put the contact information of our European representative. Along with this compliance information, we put the warnings and other verbage recommended by the standards...you know, "Replace fuse with same type and rating...don't use our products while taking a bath, do not use our product while carrying a long, sharp, metal pole in a thunderstorm, do not drop our product out of a third story window onto your head...blah, blah, blah...yada, yada, yada...." 3. Along with the above, we have put all of our compliance documentation on our server in Word, Acrobat or BitMap formats (at least for recent products). This satisfies the provision that the compliance documentation be available for inspection in a reasonable amout of time. If there is any question, we email the DOC and any other requested support documentation. Well, I wanted to add my 2 cents worth; but as usual, I tossed in a quarter. I hope this helps. Chris Maxwell | Design Engineer - Optical Division email [email protected] | dir +1 315 266 5128 | fax +1 315 797 8024 NetTest | 6 Rhoads Drive, Utica, NY 13502 | USA web www.nettest.com | tel +1 315 797 4449 | > -----Original Message----- > From: Jim Bacher [SMTP:[email protected]] > Sent: Saturday, September 28, 2002 1:33 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: DOC - Paper Reduction > > > We have a number of products that meet the same standards. Currently we > issue a DOC for each product. As each of the DOCs are identical except for > the model number, is there any reason why we could not list all the models > on one DOC? Granted as standards change there will be times when new > products will meet new standards and we will need a new DOC for the newer > products, as they would be tested to different standards than the older > products. > > Jim > > Jim Bacher, Senior Engineer > Paxar Corp. > e-mail: [email protected] > > ------------------------------------------- > This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety > Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. > > Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/> > > To cancel your subscription, send mail to: > [email protected] > with the single line: > unsubscribe emc-pstc > > For help, send mail to the list administrators: > Ron Pickard: [email protected] > Dave Heald: [email protected] > > For policy questions, send mail to: > Richard Nute: [email protected] > Jim Bacher: [email protected] > > All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: > http://ieeepstc.mindcruiser.com/ > Click on "browse" and then "emc-pstc mailing list" ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: [email protected] Dave Heald: [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected] Jim Bacher: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://ieeepstc.mindcruiser.com/ Click on "browse" and then "emc-pstc mailing list"
