The annual IECEE peer assessor course successfully completed

The annual training course for IECEE peer assessors, was this year for Asia. It took place during the last week of September at the conference center of Pullman Hotel South in Beijing, hosted by TÜV Rheinland China.
Asia is where there are most IECEE assessors and more than 200 took part in this course (See photo on the left).

In total, there are currently more than 400 IECEE assessors (Lead- and Technical Assessors) who must both initially and every 3 years be trained for 3 days and pass an exam. There are 8 lecturers (incl. the editor of this newsletter) giving presentations and performing interactive sessions. Some of the newer topics on the program were Functional safety and Cyber security which are now included in the scope for international certification.

Currently, there are 53 IECEE member countries with 93 national certification bodies (NCBs) and nearly 600 associated testing labs (CBTLs/SPTLs) operating in IECEE’s CB Scheme. All these entities must be assessed for 2-3 days both initially and every 3 years by assessment teams appointed by the IECEE Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, out of the pool of Lead Assessors and Technical assessors. The assessors are experts from the other participating operators, wherefore this control regime is referred to as ‘peer assessment’. The purpose is that the recognizing parties can be ascertained that the issuing parties have qualifications and quality matching their own level.
In addition, there are more than 2000 client manufacturer testing facilities (CTFs) which are subject to equivalent initial and periodical assessment by the NCBs they are registered with.
The basic concept of the IECEE/CB Scheme is mutual acceptance of testing reports as basis for national certification in the respective member countries. Today, a large proportion of the CB Test Certificates/Reports issued are also used directly in the marketplace and between businesses as proof of compliance with the governing technical safety standards.

The assessments are based on strict requirements as documented in various rules and procedures etc., which are publicly available on the IECEE website, together with other information about the scheme.
The rules for being accepted as operator in the scheme include also the international quality system standard ISO/IEC17065 for the product certification bodies and ISO/IEC17025 for testing labs.

For further information please contact the editor

(Article is based on the information provided by IECEE and edited by T.Sollie)