CEMARKING

CE MARKING

The European Union is keen to ensure that all products entering and used within the Union are such as not to impose a threat to consumers or the environment.

The European Community aims to ensure that industrial products made available on the Community market respect a high level of protection of public interests such as health and safety, protection of consumers and the environment.

READINESS REVIEW

A top level review will be conducted by the IAS at the manufacturer's premises. This is necessary because of the combined complexity of the CE Marking and Authorised Representative processes. It can be likened to a Stage one review. The Readiness Review will indicate to the manufacturer the likelihood of achieving CE Marking status for their product, the probable timescale and whether or not specialist help may be necessary.

Manufacturers should note that a common circumstance is that products will have developed during a period of several years. Moreover, the level of sophistication of a manufacturer's management practices and personnel will have developed in similar manner. Data regarding the excellence of the design of the product may not therefore be currently available. Often the requirement 'in the early days' was either non-existent or unappreciated.

Nonetheless, today's European Community requirement is that products should posses known qualities and data relating to their health and safety properties. Collating such data may not be an easy or rapid task and for this reason a Readiness Review is considered essential in order to ascertain realistic project milestones and costs for CE marking.