Inspection VS Test
Detection is a technical operation to determine one or more characteristics of a given product, process or service according to a specified procedure. Detection is probably the most commonly used conformity assessment procedure, which is the process of determining that products meet specific requirements. Typical inspection involves size, chemical composition, electrical principle, mechanical structure, etc. Testing is carried out by a wide range of institutions, including government agencies, academic institutions and research institutions, commercial organizations and industry.
Inspection refers to conformity evaluation through measurement, observation, detection or measurement. There will be overlaps between testing and inspection, and such activities are usually carried out by the same organization. The inspection mostly depends on visual inspection, but it may also involve detection, usually using simple instruments, such as gauges. The inspection is generally carried out by highly trained employees according to objective and standardized procedures, and the inspection usually depends on the subjective judgment and experience of the inspector.
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The most confusing words
ISO 9000 VS ISO 9001
ISO9000 does not refer to a standard, but a group of standards. The ISO9000 family of standards is a concept put forward by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1994. It refers to the international standards formulated by ISO/Tc176 (Technical Committee for Quality Management and Quality Assurance of the International Organization for Standardization).
ISO9001 is one of the core standards of the quality management system included in the ISO9000 family of standards. It is used to verify that the organization has the ability to provide products that meet customer requirements and applicable regulatory requirements, with the purpose of improving customer satisfaction. It includes four core standards: quality management system – foundation and terminology, quality management system – requirements, quality management system – performance improvement guide, and quality and environmental management system audit guide.
Certification VS recognition
Certification refers to the conformity assessment activities where the certification body certifies that the products, services and management systems comply with the mandatory requirements or standards of the relevant technical specifications.
Accreditation refers to the qualification assessment activities that are recognized by the accreditation body for the ability and practice qualification of the certification body, inspection body, laboratory and personnel engaged in the evaluation, audit and other certification activities.
CNAS VS CMA
CMA, short for China Metrology Accreditation. The Metrology Law of the People’s Republic of China stipulates that the product quality inspection institution that provides notarized data for the society must pass the metrological verification, testing ability and reliability assessment by the metrological administrative department of the people’s government at or above the provincial level. This assessment is called metrological certification.
Metrological certification is a means of compulsory assessment of the inspection institutions (laboratories) that issue notarized data for the society through metrological legislation in China, which can also be said to be the compulsory recognition of laboratories by the government with Chinese characteristics. The data provided by the product quality inspection institution that has passed the metrological certification shall be used for trade certification, product quality evaluation and achievement appraisal as notarial data and have legal effect.
CNAS: China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS) is a national accreditation institution established and authorized by the National Certification and Accreditation Administration Commission in accordance with the provisions of the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Certification and Accreditation, which is responsible for the accreditation of certification bodies, laboratories, inspection institutions and other relevant institutions.
Laboratory accreditation is voluntary and participatory. The standard adopted is equivalent to iso/iec17025:2005. There is a mutual recognition agreement signed with ILAC and other international laboratory accreditation cooperation organizations for mutual recognition.
Internal audit vs external audit
Internal audit is to improve internal management, promote quality improvement by taking corresponding corrective and preventive measures for the problems found, internal audit of the enterprise, first-party audit, and see how your company is running.
External audit generally refers to the audit of the company by the certification company, and the third party audit to see whether the company operates according to the standard system, and whether the certification certificate can be given.
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The most commonly used certification terms
1. Certification institution: refers to the institution that has been approved by the certification and accreditation supervision and administration department of the State Council, and has obtained the legal person qualification according to law, and can engage in certification activities within the scope of approval.
2. Audit: refers to the systematic, independent and documented process to obtain audit evidence and evaluate it objectively to determine the degree of meeting the audit criteria.
3. Auditor: refers to the person who has the ability to carry out the audit.
4. The local certification supervision and administration department refers to the local entry-exit inspection and quarantine institution established by the quality and technical supervision department of the people’s government of the province, autonomous region and municipality directly under the Central Government and the quality supervision, inspection and quarantine department of the State Council authorized by the national certification and accreditation supervision and administration department.
5. CCC certification: refers to compulsory product certification.
6. Export filing: refers to the implementation of the health filing system by the State for enterprises engaged in the production, processing and storage of exported food (hereinafter referred to as export food production enterprises) in accordance with the requirements of the Food Safety Law. The National Certification and Accreditation Administration (hereinafter referred to as the Certification and Accreditation Administration) is in charge of the health record work of the national export food production enterprises. All enterprises that produce, process and store export food within the territory of the People’s Republic of China must obtain the health record certificate before they can produce, process and store export food.
7. External recommendation: refers to that after the export food production enterprise applying for foreign health registration has passed the review and supervision of the entry-exit inspection and quarantine bureau in its jurisdiction, the entry-exit inspection and quarantine bureau will submit the enterprise’s application for foreign health registration materials to the National Certification and Accreditation Administration (hereinafter referred to as the Certification and Accreditation Administration), and the certification and accreditation commission will verify that it meets the requirements, The CNCA (in the name of “National Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People’s Republic of China”) shall uniformly recommend to the competent authorities of relevant countries or regions.
8. Import registration refers to the formal issuance and implementation of the Provisions on the Registration and Administration of Foreign Production Enterprises of Imported Food in 2002, which is applicable to the registration and administration of foreign production, processing and storage enterprises (hereinafter referred to as foreign production enterprises) exporting food to China. Foreign manufacturers exporting products in the Catalogue to China must apply for registration with the National Certification and Accreditation Administration. The food of foreign manufacturers without registration shall not be imported.
9. HACCP: Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point. HACCP is the basic principle guiding food enterprises to establish a food safety control system, emphasizing the prevention of hazards rather than relying on the inspection of final products. The food safety control system based on HACCP is called HACCP system. It is a system for identifying, evaluating and controlling the significant hazards of food safety.
10、 Organic agriculture: refers to “In accordance with certain organic agricultural production standards, we do not use organisms and their products obtained by genetic engineering in production, do not use chemical synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, growth regulators, feed additives and other substances, follow natural laws and ecological principles, coordinate the balance between planting and aquaculture, and adopt a series of sustainable agricultural technologies to maintain a sustainable and stable agricultural production system. China has The national standard of Organic Products (GB/T19630-2005) was issued.
11. Organic product certification: refers to the activities of certification bodies to evaluate the production and processing process of organic products in accordance with the Administrative Measures for Organic Product Certification (AQSIQ Decree [2004] No. 67) and other certification provisions, and to prove that they meet the national standards of Organic Products.
12. Organic products: refer to the products that are produced, processed and sold in accordance with the national standards for organic products and certified by legal institutions.
13. Green food: refers to the food that is planted, cultivated, applied with organic fertilizer, and processed and produced under the standard environment, production technology, and health standards without high toxicity and high residue pesticides under the pollution-free conditions, and certified by the certification authority with the green food label. (The certification is based on the industry standard of the Ministry of Agriculture.)
14. Non-pollution agricultural products: refer to unprocessed or initially processed edible agricultural products whose production environment, production process and product quality meet the requirements of relevant national standards and specifications, have been certified to be qualified and have obtained the certification certificate and are allowed to use the pollution-free agricultural product logo.
15. Food safety management system certification: refers to the application of the HACCP principle to the whole system of the food safety management system, which also integrates the relevant requirements of the quality management system, and more comprehensively guides the operation, guarantee and evaluation of the food safety management. According to the Implementation Rules for the Certification of Food Safety Management System, the certification body carries out qualification assessment activities for food production enterprises in accordance with GB/T22000 “Food Safety Management System – Requirements for Various Organizations in the Food Chain” and various special technical requirements, which is called food safety management system certification (FSMS certification for short).
16. GAP – Good Agricultural Practice: It refers to the application of modern agricultural knowledge to scientifically regulate all aspects of agricultural production, and promote the sustainable development of agriculture while ensuring the quality and safety of agricultural products.
17. Good Manufacturing Practice: (GMP-Good Manufacturing Practice): It refers to a comprehensive quality management system that obtains the expected quality of products by specifying the hardware conditions (such as factory buildings, facilities, equipment and appliances) and management requirements (such as production and processing control, packaging, warehousing, distribution, personnel hygiene and training, etc.) that products should have for production and processing, and implementing scientific management and strict monitoring throughout the production process. The contents specified in GMP are the most basic conditions that food processing enterprises must meet, and the prerequisites for the development and implementation of other food safety and quality management systems.
18. Green market certification: refers to the evaluation and certification of the wholesale and retail market environment, equipment (preservation display, detection, processing) incoming quality requirements and management, and commodity preservation, preservation, packaging, sanitation management, on-site food processing, market credit and other service facilities and procedures.
19. Qualification of laboratories and inspection institutions: refers to the conditions and capabilities that laboratories and inspection institutions that provide data and results that can prove to the society should have.
20. Accreditation of laboratories and inspection institutions: refers to the evaluation and recognition activities carried out by the National Certification and Accreditation Administration and the quality and technical supervision departments of the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government on whether the basic conditions and capabilities of laboratories and inspection institutions comply with laws, administrative regulations and relevant technical specifications or standards.
21. Metrological certification: It refers to the assessment of the metrological verification, the working performance of the testing equipment, the working environment and the operating skills of the personnel, and the ability of the quality system to ensure the uniform and accurate measurement values of the product quality inspection institutions that provide fair data to the society by the National Accreditation Administration and local quality inspection departments in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws and administrative regulations, as well as the ability of the quality system to ensure the fair and reliable testing data.
22. Review and approval (acceptance): refers to the review of the inspection capacity and quality system of the inspection institutions that undertake the inspection task of whether the products meet the standards and the supervision and inspection task of other standards by the National Accreditation Administration and local quality inspection departments in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws and administrative regulations.
23. Laboratory capability verification: It refers to the determination of laboratory testing capability by comparison between laboratories.
24. Mutual recognition agreement (MRA): refers to the mutual recognition agreement signed by both governments or conformity assessment institutions on specific conformity assessment results and acceptance of the conformity assessment results of specific conformity assessment institutions within the scope of the agreement.
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Terminology related to product certification and organization
1. Applicant/certification client: all kinds of organizations registered with the administrative department for industry and commerce and obtaining business licenses according to law, including all kinds of organizations with legal personality, as well as other organizations that are legally established, have certain organizational structures and properties, but do not have legal personality, such as sole proprietorship enterprises, partnership enterprises, partnership-type joint ventures, Chinese-foreign cooperative enterprises, operating enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises without legal personality, Branches established and licensed by legal persons and individual businesses. Note: The applicant becomes a licensee after obtaining the certificate.
2. Manufacturer/product producer: a legal person organization located in one or more fixed places that carries out or controls the design, manufacture, evaluation, treatment and storage of products, so that it can be responsible for the continuous compliance of products with relevant requirements, and assume full responsibility in those aspects.
3. Manufacturer (production site)/entrusted manufacturing enterprise: the place where the final assembly and/or test of certified products are carried out, and the certification marks and certification agencies are used to implement tracking services for them. Note: In general, the manufacturer shall be the place for final assembly, routine inspection, confirmation inspection (if any), packaging, and affixing of product nameplate and certification mark. When the above processes of products cannot be completed in one place, a relatively complete place including at least routine, confirmation inspection (if any), product nameplate and certification mark shall be selected for inspection, and the right to further inspection in other places shall be reserved.
4. OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) manufacturer: a manufacturer that produces certified products according to the design, production process control and inspection requirements provided by the client. Note: The client can be the applicant or the manufacturer. The OEM manufacturer produces certified products under the equipment of the OEM manufacturer according to the design, production process control and inspection requirements provided by the client. Trademarks of different applicants/manufacturers can be used. Different clients and OEMs shall be inspected separately. The system elements shall not be inspected repeatedly, but the production process control and inspection requirements of products and the product consistency inspection cannot be exempted.
5. ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) manufacturer: a factory that designs, processes and produces the same products for one or more manufacturers by using the same quality assurance capability requirements, the same product design, production process control and inspection requirements.
6. ODM initial certification certificate holder: the organization holding the ODM product initial product certification certificate. 1.7 The organization that the supplier provides components, parts and raw materials for the manufacturer to produce certified products. Note: When applying for certification, if the supplier is a trade/seller, the manufacturer or manufacturer of components, parts and raw materials should also be specified.
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Terminology related to product certification and organization
1. New application: all certification applications except change application and review application are new applications.
2. Extension application: the applicant, manufacturer and manufacturer have already obtained the certification of products, and the application for certification of new products of the same kind. Note: Similar products refer to products within the scope of the same factory definition code.
3. Extension application: the applicant, manufacturer and manufacturer have already obtained the certification of products, and the application for certification of new products of different types. Note: Different types of products refer to products within the scope of different factory codes.
4. ODM mode application: application in ODM mode. ODM mode, that is, ODM manufacturers design, process and produce products for manufacturers in accordance with relevant agreements and other documents.
5. Change application: the application made by the holder for the change of certificate information, organization and possibly affecting product consistency.
6. Reexamination application: before the expiry of the certificate, if the holder needs to continue to hold the certificate, he/she shall apply for the product with the certificate again. Note: The application for reexamination shall be submitted before the expiration of the certificate, and a new certificate shall be issued before the expiration of the certificate, otherwise it shall be deemed as a new application.
7. Unconventional factory inspection: due to the long inspection cycle or other reasons, the enterprise applies for and has been approved by the certification authority, but the formal test of the product applied for certification has not been completed
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Terminology related to testing
1. Product inspection/product type test: product inspection refers to the link in the product certification system to determine product characteristics through testing, including sample requirements and testing evaluation requirements. Product type test is to verify that the product meets all requirements of product standards. Product inspection broadly includes product type test; In a narrow sense, product inspection refers to the test conducted according to some indicators of product standards or product characteristic standards. At present, tests based on product safety standards are also defined as product type tests.
2. Routine inspection/process inspection: Routine inspection is a 100% inspection of the products on the production line at the final stage of production. Generally, after inspection, no further processing is required except for packaging and labeling. Note: The routine inspection can be carried out by the equivalent and rapid method determined after verification.
Process inspection refers to the inspection of the first article, semi-finished product or key process in the production process, which can be 100% inspection or sampling inspection. Process inspection is applicable to material processing products, and the term “process inspection” is also generally used in corresponding standards.
3. Confirmation inspection/delivery inspection: confirmation inspection is a sampling inspection to verify that the product continues to meet the requirements of the standard. The confirmation test shall be carried out according to the methods specified in the standard. Note: If the manufacturer does not have test equipment, the confirmation inspection can be entrusted to a competent laboratory.
Ex-factory inspection is the final inspection of products when they leave the factory. Delivery inspection is applicable to material processing products. The term “delivery inspection” is also generally used in corresponding standards. Delivery inspection must be completed by the factory.
4. Designated test: the test conducted by the manufacturer at the production site according to the items selected by the inspector according to the standards (or certification rules) in order to evaluate the product consistency.
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Terminology related to factory inspection
1. Factory inspection: the inspection of the factory’s quality assurance capability and the conformity of certified products.
2. Initial factory inspection: factory inspection of the manufacturer applying for certification before obtaining the certificate.
3. Supervision and inspection after certification: In order to ensure that the certified products continue to meet the certification requirements, regular or irregular factory inspection is carried out for the manufacturer, and the supervision and inspection often carry out factory supervision sampling inspection activities at the same time.
4. Normal supervision and inspection: supervision and inspection after certification in accordance with the supervision cycle specified in the certification rules. Usually referred to as supervision and inspection. Inspection can be carried out with or without prior notice.
5. Flight inspection: a form of normal supervision and inspection, which is to assign an inspection team to directly arrive at the production site according to relevant regulations without notifying the licensee/manufacturer in advance to carry out factory supervision and inspection and/or factory supervision and sampling on the licensed enterprise.
6. Special supervision and inspection: a form of supervision and inspection after certification, which is to increase the frequency of supervision and inspection and/or factory supervision and sampling for the manufacturer according to the certification rules. Note: special supervision and inspection cannot replace normal supervision and inspection.
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Terminology related to conformity assessment
1. Evaluation: the inspection/inspection of certified products, the review of the quality assurance ability of the manufacturer and the inspection of product consistency according to the requirements of the certification rules.
2. Audit: before the certification decision, confirm the completeness, authenticity and conformity of the information provided for the product certification application, evaluation activities and the suspension, cancellation, cancellation and recovery of the certification certificate.
3. Certification decision: judge the effectiveness of certification activities, and make the final decision on whether to obtain certification and whether to approve, maintain, suspend, cancel, revoke and restore the certificate.
4. Preliminary evaluation: the part of the certification decision is the confirmation of the completeness, conformity and effectiveness of the information provided at the final stage of the product certification evaluation activity.
5. Re-evaluation: the component of the certification decision is to determine the validity of the certification activities and make the final decision on whether to obtain the certificate and whether to approve, maintain, suspend, cancel, revoke and restore the certificate
Post time: Mar-17-2023