Company News: Intertek Offers Training for Safe Design Professional Certification

Company emphasizes importance of incorporating design hazard analysis in product development

Published: Monday, October 11, 2010 - 10:04

(Intertek: Oak Brook, IL) -- Intertek, a provider of quality and safety solutions serving a wide range of industries globally, has been certified as the first training provider and examiner for the new Safe Design Professional (Saf-D-Pro) Certification Scheme, enabling the company, which pioneered design hazard analysis and design appraisal in consumer product development, to play an integral role in helping to promote a greater focus on product design in the consumer goods industry.

Intertek’s certification comes about as the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced that building safety into every product at every stage of production prior to being available on store shelves is a key priority for the organization as it strives to avoid future product recalls. The CPSC also emphasized that more attention to product design and assembly is key to meeting product safety mandates at the Third-Annual Product Safety & Liability Conference, held Oct. 6–7 in Washington, D.C.  

“Every year, millions of consumer products, including power tools, window treatments, toys, food, household appliances, and cars, are recalled because of possible injury risks resulting from normal, everyday use,” says Gene Rider, president of Intertek Consumer Goods North America. “Nearly 75 percent of these product recalls are the result of design defects. Design appraisal, design hazard analysis, and design review can have enormous impact on consumer product safety when conducted consistently and reliably. It is essential for everyone in the supply chain to have qualified product safety experts to ensure that design appraisal—the most critical step in any comprehensive product safety system—is conducted by knowledgeable and qualified individuals.”

The Saf-D-Pro Certification Scheme has been developed by RABQSA International Inc. in conjunction with the Saf-D-Pro scheme committee to provide international recognition for certified design appraisers who conduct safety assessments on consumer product designs. The committee included notable industry experts such as Robyn Easton, Consumers’ Federation of Australia; Joanne Vincenten, European Child Safety Alliance; James Reilly, Ph.D., Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children; and others with extensive consumer-product risk assessment and risk management experience.

Saf-D-Pro encompasses competency-based product design certification criteria in each of the key elements of effective design appraisal, including knowledge of product safety standards; recall and incident data; human factors; foreseeable use or misuse analysis; hazard identification and characterization; and engineering, chemical, and microbiological analysis.

To learn more about or apply for RABQSA’s Saf-D-Pro Certification Scheme, visit www.rabqsa.com/cb_safdpro.

To learn more about Intertek’s design hazard analysis capabilities,visit www.intertek.com/risk-management/design-hazard-analysis.

About The Author

Intertek

Intertek goes beyond testing, inspecting, and certifying products. Intertek provides a systemic approach to supporting its customers’ quality assurance efforts in each of the areas of their operations including R&D, raw materials sourcing, components suppliers, manufacturing, transportation, distribution and retail channels, and consumer management. Intetek’s network of more than 40,000 employees in 1,000 laboratories and offices in 100 countries provides quality and safety solutions to a wide range of industries.