Inspection services tailored for Olympic licensed products

As Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is drawing near, sales of the Olympic licensed products will hit a peak. Up to now, the officially licensed products cover 19 subcategories under 13 categories, with over 6,000 varieties of articles developed and put on sale. There are 67 designated suppliers, over 200 producers, and more than 1,000 stores open across the country, China Certification & Inspection Group(CCIC) told the reporter on June 16.

? Licensed products feature Olympic marks, so their quality will have direct influences on the international image of Beijing Olympic Games. Leading design and supreme quality serve as the lifeline of these products.

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) has all the time placed priority on quality management of Olympic licensed products, among all the issues concerning licensed operation management. BOCOG has taken various kinds of measures to strengthen quality supervision and inspection, and authorized institutions including CCIC to carry out stringent testing and inspection on licensed products. Licensed producers are required to pull unqualified products off shelves, and bear all responsibilities for the related losses; In case that the quality problems cause negative effects on licensed businesses and Beijing Olympics, the related producers shall be punished seriously or disqualified.?

CCIC is presently the largest third-party organization capable of providing the widest range of services including inspection, surveying, certification and testing at home, said the officer from CCIC. With a view to better serving the Games, its subsidiary China Quality Certification Centre (CQC), had moved to preliminary communications with BOCOG on how to provide satisfactory product quality and management services as early as in March 2006. In January 2007, on the basis of friendly consultation, both sides reached agreement on cooperation in conducting total quality control for Olympic licensed products.

?In order to pool professional expertise to overcome all kinds of difficulties, CQC and other inspection institutions under CCIC jointly set up a project team for supervision and management of Olympic licensed businesses. The project team, dedicated to tailoring inspection services for Olympic licensed products, has made great efforts and successfully completed formulation of the implementation plan on supervision and management services purchasing project for licensed businesses.

The implementation plan provides solutions in which total quality management and control are implemented with highly effective modules customized in line with the categories and characteristics of licensed products. In such a way, it not only helps ensure quality and safety of all related products, but makes it possible for BOCOG to integrate product quality control processes. It covers such aspects as formulation of supervision and management standards, submission of compulsory product certification documents, certification of licensed businesses, sampling inspection, and producer training.

In the light of the implementation plan, CCIC has provided BOCOG with an integral set of total quality management services for licensed operation for about one year, and received high recognition. Accordingly, CCIC is designated by BOCOG as the exclusive service provider for licensed product quality management.

Due to their particularity, total quality management of licensed products involves varied links in the quality control chain, including compulsory certification of toy products, voluntary product certification(ecological textile certification), product testing, supplier assessment, and market sampling inspection.

Licensed businesses are required to take their responsibilities in quality monitoring, environmental protection and other aspects. In order to provide better and more customized quality control services, CQC has sent a batch of experienced technical experts to carry out training on licensed producers. Presently, intensive trainings have been conducted for four times on over 1,000 person/times of trainees from almost all licensed businesses, spanning a wide range of areas such as laws and regulations, product quality control, assessment of enterprises quality management system, environmental protection, labor protection of employees, and enterprises social responsibilities.