Comments on Gene Panger's: ISO/IEC Guide 2 (my copy is 1991) defines "certification" as a procedure by which "a third party" gives written assurance that a product, process or service conforms to specified requirements.
Hence, certification, by international agreement is something a 3rd party does and there is no such thing as "self certification". In this business there is: First party = the supplier Second party = the purchaser Third party = body or person recognized as being independent from the 1st and 2nd parties. What this is all about, is Assurance of conformity = procedure resulting in a statement giving confidence that a product or service fulfils specified requirements. There are many ways of doing this, as is recognized in the EC Module Decision, which gives a choice of some 8 possibilities. One of them is Suppliers Declaration = procedure by which a supplier gives written assurance that a product or service conforms to specified requirements There is a note attched to that statement to the effect that - In order to avoid any confusion, the expression "self-declaration" should not be used. The CE-marking, as I understand it, only means to indicate that somebody has done an investigation and has produced a written declaration of conformity. It is not intended to convey anything to the user, only a tool to refer authorities having jurisdiction to whomsoever did the decalration of conformity. Unfortunately, some of the EC Directives confuse the issue by referring to the Declaration of Conformity as a "Certificate". I've got to get myself a copy of those documents in a language other than English, to see whether we're once again dealing with English that would never be approved in North America (where the real English is spoken). I also understand that there will be a meeting April 15, where a decision will be reached on the ENEC mark, which will be pan-European and will give users a degree of comfort that a 3rd party has been involved in the evaluation of the product. All in all, what we're talking about is "giving confidence". Personally, rightly or wrongly, I trust certain suppliers, usually the BIG names, to do the right things or fix it, if they made a mistake. They usually did in the past. Hence, a suppliers declaration from one of these BIG names, gives me as much confidene as a 3rd party certification. In the end, if something goes wrong, the big name firm will fix what went wrong, not the certification organization. I also have confidence in the very tiny firm that build my computers. He has fixed whatever went wrong, but some of his competitors are no longer in business. Some of the 3rd party certification houses are no longer in business. Some of the BIG name firms are disappearing. What constitutes "giving confidence". I don't know. I do know that in the final analysis it becomes more of a touchy-feely thing than something you can hang your hat on. Ask me next why I love and trust my wife. (Is 40 years of living together sufficient evidence ?) Ciao, Vic
