TY - JOUR A1 - Mirtsch, Mona A1 - Koch, Claudia A1 - Asna Ashari, Parsa A1 - Blind, K. A1 - Castka, P. T1 - Quality assurance in supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic: Empirical evidence on organisational resilience of conformity assessment bodies N2 - Global supply chains rely on the compliance and safety of their products, processes, and facilities. These vital services (often referred to as ‘quality assurance’ or ‘conformity assessment’ services) are provided by Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs). This empirical study explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on CABs as well as their response to the resulting challenges. Data was gathered through an online survey among all accredited CABs in Germany, which resulted in 555 valid responses. Taking a resilience perspective, we reveal that CABs were hit hard by the disruptions caused by the pandemic, albeit to different degrees, in part due to their type of services, size, and sectors served. Furthermore, we find that contingency plans do not directly cushion order declines (as the main indicator of the economic impact of the pandemic) but rather indirectly through helping CABs respond more quickly, which in turn mitigates their order declines. However, our results show that contingency plans can also have adverse effects if they hinder flexible reaction to the crisis. The findings of our study help managers and policymakers learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and improve the resilience of the conformity assessment sector and quality assurance in the event of future crises. KW - Quality Infrastructure KW - Digitalization KW - Testing laboratories KW - Organizational resilience KW - COVID-19 KW - Conformity assessment PY - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2022.2078189 SP - 1 EP - 23 PB - Taylor & Francis AN - OPUS4-55066 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Denkler, Tilman T1 - Comparison of the Operation of Accreditation Bodies in Europe - Final Report 2nd Round N2 - In 2019 the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und –prüfung (BAM) conducted a benchmarking to compare the operations of European accreditation bodies and to identify best practices, with the aim of improving key processes in accreditation. Ten European accreditation bodies attended the comparison, four of which had already taken part in the pilot phase of the benchmarking project, which was conducted in 2017 by the German accreditation body Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle GmbH (DAkkS) and BAM. The study, designed to examine and compare the operation of accreditation bodies in Europe, used a management tool called Process Maturity Benchmarking Tool, which was especially elaborated and validated for this purpose in the pilot phase, in order to determine the values of indicators, thus enabling a comparison of the accreditation bodies despite different operational processes and organizational forms. The management tool is based on the analysis of selected processes with high relevance for the operation of accreditation bodies. The processes are derived from a process map designed for accreditation bodies in a universally applicable way. The indicators used to characterize the processes come from two sources: The first source relates to data already available from internal databases, reports, financial audits, and others. The second source is derived from the self-evaluation of process maturity performed by the accreditation bodies. The criteria for evaluating process maturities were designed by applying the criteria of the EFQM excellence model 2013 of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) to the processes identified in the process map. The results of the analysis were presented to and discussed with representatives of the ten accreditation bodies at a Results-Workshop that took place at BAM on 21/22 January 2020. KW - Akkreditierung KW - Accreditation KW - Benchmarking KW - EFQM Excellence Modell KW - Quality Infrastructure KW - Total Quality Management PY - 2020 SP - 1 EP - 70 AN - OPUS4-54712 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Denkler, Tilman T1 - Accreditation in Europe: Benchmarking the operations of European accreditation bodies using an innovative management tool N2 - Accreditation is one of the pillars of a national Quality Infrastructure, as the competence of conformity assessment bodies is assured through accreditation performed by accreditation bodies. To compare the operation of accreditation bodies in Europe and to identify best practices, a management tool, the Process Maturity Benchmarking Tool, was developed and validated by applying it to European accreditation bodies. The benchmarking project comprised two major phases: In the first phase, the processes of accreditation bodies were systematically analyzed. A process map was developed, and processes of special relevance were identified and underpinned by indicators. In the second phase, the practical applicability of the theoretical model was demonstrated by analyzing the processes of eight European accreditation bodies. The results of this comparative assessment were subsequently discussed in a workshop with experts from those accreditation bodies, giving the opportunity to identify best practices. This article has a twofold objective. First, to present a method to benchmark European accreditation bodies, based on the European Foundation for Quality Management excellence model. The successful application of the Process Maturity Benchmarking Tool gives evidence that it is a suitable and capable management tool to assess the processes of the European accreditation bodies and to benchmark them. Second, the article presents the results of the first adaption of the Process Maturity Benchmarking Tool. A general trend of process maturity was identified: While processes based on stakeholder involvement tend to have an overall lower maturity on average, internal processes are more mature. KW - Accreditation KW - Benchmarking KW - Quality Infrastructure KW - EFQM Excellence Modell KW - Total Quality Management KW - Akkreditierung PY - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-521706 VL - 26 IS - 1 SP - 47 EP - 57 PB - Springer Nature CY - Jersey City, NJ 07302, USA AN - OPUS4-52170 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Denkler, Tilman T1 - Comparison of the Operation of Accreditation Bodies in Europe - Final Report Pilot Phase N2 - This study was designed to examine and compare the operation of accreditation bodies in Europe. A management tool, the Process Maturity Benchmarking Tool (PMBT), was elaborated and validated by applying it to various accreditation bodies. By applying the tool, the values of indicators were determined, thus enabling a comparison of the accreditation bodies despite different operational processes and organizational forms. The management tool PMBT is based on the analysis of selected processes with high relevance for the operation of accreditation bodies. The processes are derived from a process map designed for accreditation bodies in a universally applicable way. The indicators used to characterize the processes come from two sources: The first source relates to data already available from internal databases, reports, financial audits etc. The second source is derived from a self-evaluation of process maturity performed by the accreditation bodies. The criteria for evaluating process maturity were designed by applying the criteria of the EFQM excellence model 2013 of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) to the processes identified in the process map. The project Comparison of the Operation of Accreditation Bodies in Europe comprised three stages. In the first stage, the processes of accreditation bodies were systematically analyzed. A process map was developed and processes of special relevance for the performance of accreditation bodies were identified and underpinned by indicators as described above. In the second stage, the processes of the German accreditation body DAkkS were assigned to the tool. This stage was used to check and modify the indicators when necessary. In the third stage, the transferability of the model was analyzed by extension to seven other accreditation bodies operating in Europe. The third stage of the project ended with a workshop attended by the eight accreditation bodies, which was used to present and discuss the results of the comparison and to identify best practices. KW - Accreditation KW - Benchmarking KW - Quality Infrastructure KW - EFQM Excellence Modell KW - Total Quality Management KW - Akkreditierung PY - 2019 SP - 1 EP - 82 AN - OPUS4-52172 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Koch, Claudia A1 - Asna Ashari, Parsa A1 - Mirtsch, Mona A1 - Blind, K. A1 - Castka, P. T1 - Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on accredited conformity assessment bodies: insights from a multinational study N2 - The COVID-19 pandemic posed new and manifold challenges to organizations and their operations worldwide. Conformity assessment bodies (CABs), such as testing or medical laboratories, certification, and inspection bodies, were also affected by the associated disruptions. Their role in this crisis is highly relevant, as CABs are essential pillars of the quality infrastructure: their activities ensure that products and services meet requirements as defined in standards and regulations, thereby contributing to their safety and reliability. The question arises of how CABs and their operations were affected by the pandemic and how they responded. To this end, we present the results of an international survey of 986 CABs of all types in Germany, the UK, Italy, and New Zealand. Overall, CABs reported, on average, a reduction in demand for their services during the pandemic, facing restrictions in all countries. In addition, the pandemic had an overall negative impact on the CABs’ investment and innovation activities. However, investments in digital infrastructure were increased as a countermeasure, with CABs reporting a higher need for digitalization. The paper highlights and discusses results from in-depth analyses relevant to policymakers and industry alike. KW - Quality Infrastructure KW - Digitalization KW - Testing laboratories KW - Conformity assessment KW - Certification KW - Conformity assessment body KW - Corona KW - Covid-19 KW - Resilience PY - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-556396 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - Springer AN - OPUS4-55639 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram A1 - Tchetgnia Ngassam, Ines A1 - Breitschaft, G. A1 - Virchow, S. ED - Diouri, A. ED - Boukhari, A. ED - Ait Brahim, L. ED - Bahi, L. ED - Khachani, N. ED - Saadi, M. ED - Aride, J. ED - Nounah, A. T1 - Challenges of the growing African cement market – environmental issues, regulative framework, and quality infrastructure requirements N2 - The African cement, concrete and construction business is growing at rapid pace. The cement sales are expected to grow rapidly until 2050. The number of newly built cement plants increases dramatically and in addition more cements are being imported from outside the continent, e.g. from Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, and China, driven by overcapacities in the countries of origin. This causes a high number of potentials and challenges at the same time. Newly built cement plants can operate directly at best technological state of the art and thus incorporate more sustainable technologies as well as produce new and more sustainable products such as cements blended with sustainable supplementary cementitious materials such as calcined clays, and industrial or agricultural by products. At the same time the new variety of binding agent as well as the international imports, which are driven by price considerations, make the cement market prone to quality scatter. This puts pressure on the quality control regulations and institutions to ensure safety of construction, healthy application, and environmental safety for the population. The paper presents possible solutions to build up the rapidly increasing African cement production more sustainably than in the rest of the world as well as the related challenges and obstacles that need to be overcome. Based on experiences with a series of pan-African cement testing laboratory proficiency schemes conclusions are made on technical, regulative and political level. T2 - 2nd International Congress on Materials & Structural Stability (CMSS-2017) CY - Rabat, Morocco DA - 22.11.2017 KW - Quality Infrastructure KW - Africa KW - Proficiency Testing KW - Cement KW - Admixtures PY - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-444330 SN - 2261-236X VL - 149 SP - 01014-1 EP - 01014-8 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis AN - OPUS4-44433 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Maiwald, Michael A1 - Kipphardt, Heinrich A1 - Tuma, Dirk A1 - Khanipour, Peyman T1 - Sensors, Analytics and Certified Reference Materials safeguarding the quality infrastructure in the hydrogen economy N2 - The prerequisites for a successful energy transition and the economic use of hydrogen as a clean green energy carrier and for H2 readiness are a rapid market ramp-up and the establishment of the required value chains. Reliable quality and safety standards for innovative technologies are the prerequisite for ensuring supply security, for environmental compatibility and sustainable climate protection, for building trust in these technologies and thus enable product and process innovations. With the Competence Centre "H2Safety@BAM", BAM is creating the safety-related prere-quisites for the successful implementation of hydrogen technologies at national as well as European level. BAM uses decades of experience in dealing with hydrogen technologies to develop the necessary quality and safety standards. The presentation will draw a bow from the typical basic tasks of BAM in the field of competence "Sensors, analytics and certified reference materials", such as maintenance and dissemination of the national gas composition standards for calorific value determination as Designated Institute for Metrology in Chemistry within the framework of the Metre Convention, to the further development of measurement and sensor technology for these tasks. For the certification of reference materials, a mostly slow and time-consuming but solid reference analysis is common. With hydrogen and its special properties, completely new requirements are added. In addition, fast and simple online analysis is required for process control, for example to register quality changes, e.g., during load changes or refuelling processes. T2 - Indo-German International Conference on Metrology for the Deployment of Green Hydrogen and Renewable Fuels in India CY - Online meeting DA - 04.04.2022 KW - Quality Infrastructure KW - Gas Reference Material KW - Hydrogen KW - Energy Gases KW - Sensors KW - Hydrogen Storage Materials PY - 2022 UR - https://www.imeko-gh2fuels.ptb.de/ AN - OPUS4-54596 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - GEN A1 - Monavari, Mehran A1 - Prellwitz, Matthias A1 - Muth, Thilo A1 - Eichstädt, Sascha A1 - Koch, Claudia T1 - Quality-X: A Federated Digital Ecosystem for the Future Quality Infrastructure N2 - Harmonized and interoperable national Quality Infrastructure (QI) systems are essential for fostering cooperation, promoting mutual trust, and facilitating trade. The true potential of the QI is realized when its elements and actors are seamlessly integrated into a cohesive digital QI ecosystem. Recent developments towards industrial international data spaces enable such an ecosystem but require the integration of QI principles. Recognizing the lack of such a platform, Quality-X aims at setting the stage for the implementation of a QI ecosystem in international data spaces (IDS), GAIA-X and related German and European projects dedicated to secure data sharing. Quality-X is not about the construction of a platform; it is the creation of an inclusive QI ecosystem with harmonized interfaces. Instead of imposing rigid data structures, it prioritizes interoperability. Through the utilization of Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs), Verifiable Credentials, and Identity Hubs, Quality-X seeks seamless interactions across diverse service provider systems. This white paper introduces the concept and vision of Quality-X and discusses the general prerequisites for integrating QI processes within data spaces. Further on, we introduce existing testbeds, which will serve as an experimental proving ground for exploring various use cases related to the implementation of the vision of a QI-Digital. +++ Harmonisierte und interoperable nationale Qualitätsinfrastrukturen (QI) sind für die Förderung der Zusammenarbeit, des gegenseitigen Vertrauens und der Erleichterung des Handels unerlässlich. Das wahre Potenzial der QI kommt zum Tragen, wenn ihre Elemente und Akteure nahtlos in ein kohärentes digitales QI-Ökosystem integriert werden. Die jüngsten Entwicklungen hin zu industriellen internationalen Datenräumen ermöglichen ein solches Ökosystem, erfordern jedoch die Integration von QI-Prinzipien. Angesichts des Fehlens einer solchen Plattform zielt Quality-X darauf ab, die Voraussetzungen für die Umsetzung eines QI-Ökosystems in internationalen Datenräumen (IDS), GAIA-X und verwandten deutschen und europäischen Projekten zum sicheren Datenaustausch zu schaffen. Bei Quality-X geht es nicht um den Aufbau einer Plattform, sondern um die Schaffung eines umfassenden QI-Ökosystems mit harmonisierten Schnittstellen. Anstatt starre Datenstrukturen aufzuerlegen, steht die Interoperabilität im Vordergrund. Durch die Verwendung von dezentralen Identifikatoren (DIDs), überprüfbaren Berechtigungsnachweisen und Identitäts-Hubs strebt Quality-X eine nahtlose Interaktion zwischen verschiedenen Systemen von Dienstleistern an. Dieses Whitepaper stellt das Konzept und die Vision von Quality-X vor und erörtert die allgemeinen Voraussetzungen für die Integration von QI-Prozessen in Datenräumen. Darüber hinaus stellen wir bestehende Testbeds vor, die als experimentelles Versuchsfeld für die Erforschung verschiedener Anwendungsfälle im Zusammenhang mit der Umsetzung der Vision einer QI-Digital dienen sollen. KW - Quality Assurance KW - Quality Infrastructure KW - Data Spaces KW - Digitalization KW - Quality Management KW - Interoperability KW - Verification KW - Identification KW - Certificate KW - Datenräume KW - Qualitätsinfrastruktur KW - Gaia-X KW - Manufacturing-X KW - Catena-X KW - Datenökosystem KW - Qualitätssicherung KW - Qualitätsmanagement PY - 2023 UR - https://www.qi-digital.de/fileadmin/user_upload/website/publikationen/1022_Brosch%C3%BCre_Quality-X_v4.pdf SP - 1 CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-59354 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Koch, Claudia T1 - Current Digitalization Approaches in Quality Infrastructure -The QI-Digital Initiative N2 - The talk provides an overview on the importance and drivers of digital transformation in quality infrastructure (QI) as well as the approach the initiative QI-Digital takes to provide solutions. Special emphasis is given to the pilot projects implemented at BAM. T2 - Global Technical Regulation and Standardization Board Meeting CY - Erlangen, Germany DA - 20.07.2023 KW - Quality Infrastructure KW - Conformity Assessment KW - Quality-X KW - Smart standard KW - Additive manufacturing KW - Hydrogen fueling station KW - Digitalization PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-58118 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Koch, Claudia T1 - A Modern Quality Infrastructure: Digital and Networked N2 - The presentation provides an overview and introduction to the need and drivers for the digital transformation of the quality infrastructure (QI). It illustrates the tools and processes that are the fundation of a digital QI and how the initiatve QI-Digital aims at developing accordant solutions. Special emphasis is given to the pilot projects at BAM. T2 - Visit of Indian delegation at BAM hosted by GIZ and BMWK CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 24.04.2023 KW - Quality Infrastructure KW - Conformity Assessment KW - Quality-X KW - Smart standard KW - Additive manufacturing KW - Hydrogen fueling station KW - Digitalization KW - Digital certificate PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-58119 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -