CTC lauds lab programme
Research body CTC is helping footwear brands and their material suppliers put in place a high level of assurance that in-house laboratories are testing and measuring accurately, boosting confidence all along the supply chain.
In recent years, major players in the footwear industry have learned the importance of building strong relationships not just with materials suppliers, but with other partners too. Laboratories that are equipped and qualified to carry out the tests and checks that are necessary to satisfy the demands of brands and customers for quality, consistency and safety have an important role to play. It is becoming more and more common for manufacturers and their supply partners to set up their own laboratories. In response, Lyon-based research and testing body CTC has established its own laboratory certification programme to help these facilities reach, and remain at, a sufficiently high level.
An in-house laboratory gives manufacturers continuous oversight of product quality and, importantly, allows them to show that they are working to international norms, that their production is of the required standard. And being able to share their test results allows them to prove this.
Tools of assurance
CTC’s view is that in-house laboratories provide a valuable service in carrying out, day after day, mechanical and chemical tests. “These are tools of assurance,” the organisation says, “on the quality control of companies’ production set-ups. They provide an objective measure of the control measures that a factory can put in place and help customers see if suppliers will be able to meet their specifications.” This is in the context of something CTC says is undeniable; any consumer-facing company that is able to maintain a strong relationship with manufacturing partners that have their own well run laboratories is going to have a competitive advantage.
It explains this advantage by saying it will give those consumer-facing companies confidence in the quality of their products and in the raw materials that go into making them. They will have in place what the organisation calls “an early-warning system” if any problem does arise; they will have “a capacity to react” that, without similarly easy access to laboratory testing, their competitors will not have.
Continuous improvement
They can also take an active part in pushing key performance indicators upwards to drive continuous improvement among suppliers. In addition, the information arising from regular in-house testing will prove to brands and producers of finished products that their specifications work and are in keeping with international requirements. Were these specifications to fall short in any way, it is clearly better to find out as soon as possible. CTC refers to such a regime as “smart-testing”.This throws up an old question though: how can footwear brands, for example, be sure that the laboratories themselves are working at the required level and that the smart-testing programme is working as it should? The research organisation’s answer to this has been to set up its own “laboratory approved” programme, and it insists that this will give brands all the reassurance they need.
The programme focuses on measuring the reliability of a laboratory’s results, its faithfulness in following international standards, the effectiveness and compliance of its equipment, the competence and good working practices of its technicians and the soundness of the laboratory management.
In comparison
To sign up for the programme, companies running laboratories need only approach CTC to request inclusion and highlight up front which physical and chemical tests their facilities carry out. A CTC team will then arrange an audit, confirming the cost in advance.
If the outcome of the audit is satisfactory, the in-house laboratory can continue to the second phase of the programme, which involves having CTC technicians carry out comparative “inter-laboratory” tests to compare the performance of the laboratory it is assessing with that of one of its own laboratories.
Concrete steps
The audit might well lead to concrete recommendations as to how the supplier’s laboratory can improve its performance; CTC would then give it an opportunity to put those measures in place before moving on to phase two. And if those improvements are hard to put into effect, the organisation will even work side by side with the laboratory it is assessing to help it make the necessary changes. It says areas on which this “accompaniment” are often needed include the correct way to measure results, the training of technicians or the overall management of the laboratory.
At the end of phase two, if the candidate laboratory shows up well in the comparative tests with a CTC laboratory, it qualifies immediately as a CTC-approved laboratory. The laboratory and its customers will then have the right to refer to themselves as CTC-approved for one year. At the end of that year, a successful follow-up audit and inter-laboratory re-test will allow them to renew this status.
What this status will do for materials suppliers and the brands and finished product manufacturers who source from them is boost their standing in international markets as good practitioners, CTC argues. It will offer formal proof of their commitment to quality. At the same time, it will open up for them a path towards continuous improvement, supported by CTC. For individual technicians, it will provide meaningful performance goals and, at the same time, the reassurance of expert technical support from an organisation that has been carrying out laboratory tests for the footwear industry for more than 100 years.
Credit: CTC
