How Third-Party Product Certification Reduces Risks for Specifiers
- 11 hours ago
- 2 min read
Specifying passive fire protection products carries real responsibility with risks relating to quality, safety and reliability. These decisions affect the life safety, legal compliance and cost of a project. Third-party certification offers specifiers and building stakeholders independent verification of the quality, performance and manufacturing consistency of a product and provides confidence in their specification.
What Third Party Certification Really Means
Third party certification is independent verification carried out by a UKAS-accredited body and in accordance with rules of a UKAS accredited scheme. Rules can vary from scheme to scheme however, as a minimum, third-party product certification schemes should cover:
Factory Control Procedures
Manufacturing Processes
Product Performance (through evidence)
Product Components
Third-party certification isn’t a one-off test or audit. It involves continuous surveillance that provides ongoing oversite that offers real value to the marketplace and reduces risk for stakeholders.
How does third-party certification influence product specification?
Products that hold third-party certification demonstrate that performance claims have been verified and manufacturing systems are monitored and assessed as a system. This reduces the risks associated with specifying the product thus providing confidence to specifiers and building stakeholders.
Does third-party certification provide a return on investment?
Every scheme has different rules and it’s critical that a manufacturer assesses the return on investment a scheme can provide before committing to it. Manufacturers should look for these 3 key points when considering their certification options…
Is the scheme UKAS Accredited?
Is the scheme up to date with regulatory demands and requirements?
Are the scheme rules unambiguous? (i.e. do you know what you’re being certified for?)
If a third-party certification scheme doesn’t deliver on these key points, can a specifier truly trust the quality and assurance of the scheme? Third-party certification remains voluntary however many specifiers and main contractors expect you to have it in place, it is crucial that they can trust the scheme and understand what it represents.
You cannot remove the risk from specification completely but as a manufacturer, you can prove the steps you take to minimise it. By committing to a third-party certification that delivers value for you, your client and the specifier, you give yourself a commercial advantage and confidence to your stakeholders.
UKTC Ensure
UKTC ensure is a third-party certification scheme for passive fire protection products that has been designed to eliminate ambiguity and answer the demands of industry regulators and stakeholders. It makes certification conditional on the publication of supporting data and establishes a single source of truth for the certified products to align with the requirements of the golden thread.
To learn more about UKTC ensure, click here.
