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 JF - Total quality management & business excellence 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 DO - 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 - CONF A1 - Koch, Claudia A1 - Niederhausen, J. T1 - Vision einer modernen Qualitätsinfrastruktur: digital und vernetzt N2 - „Made in Germany“ steht für Vertrauen in Qualität und Sicherheit, das auch in der digitalen und grünen Transformation gelten soll.  In einer zunehmend digitalisierten Welt muss auch die Qualitätssicherung von Produkten, Prozessen und Dienstleistungen neu gedacht werden. Ziel der Initiative QI-Digital ist es, Lösungen für eine moderne, digitale Qualitätsinfrastruktur (QI) zu schaffen. Im Vortrag wird die Vision einer QI-Digital skizziert, und es werden die nötigen Werkzeuge sowie das Vorgehen der Initiative mithilfe dreier Pilotprojekte dargestellt. T2 - QI-Digital Forum „Made in Germany in der digitalen und grünen Transformation“ CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 11.10.2022 KW - Qualitätsinfrastruktur KW - Digitalisierung KW - Wasserstofftankstelle KW - Additive Fertigung KW - Smart Standard KW - QI-Cloud KW - Zertifikat KW - Prüfung PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-56185 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Koch, Claudia T1 - Digitalisierung in der Konformitätsbewertung - Einblicke aus unserer internationalen QI-FoKuS-Studie N2 - Die Präsentation enthält Informationen zur internationalen Studie der BAM zum Thema Digitalisierung in der Konformitätsbewertung, insbesondere erste Ergebnisse aus Deutschland. Sie zeigt u.a. die digitale Reife der teilnehmenden Prüflaboratorien und Zertifizierungsstellen sowie technologische Trends. T2 - 25. Kolloquium von EUROLAB-D CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 11.05.2022 KW - Qualitätsinfrastruktur KW - Digitalisierung KW - Prüflaboratorien KW - Konformitätsbewertung KW - Prüfwesen PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-54814 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Koch, Claudia T1 - Vertrauen in Qualität und Sicherheit in der Digitalisierung - Eine digital gestützte Qualitätssicherung für die additive Fertigung N2 - Der Vortrag stellt die Initiative QI-Digital vor, deren Ziel es ist, Lösungen für eine moderne, digitale Qualitätsinfrastruktur (QI) zu entwickeln. Dabei wird insbesondere auf den das praxisnahe Pilotprojekt der Qualitätssicherung in der additiven Fertigung eingegangen und aufgezeigt, wie digitale QI-Werkzeuge wie Smart Standards, digitale Zertifikate und Kalibrierscheine, eine QI-Cloud und der digitale Produktpass zu einer vernetzten und vertrauenswürdigen Qualitätssicherung beitragen. T2 - Leichtbau-Workshop Digitalisierung „Digitalisierung, Motor für nachhaltigen Leichtbau – Leichtbau, Motor für die Digitalisierung!“ CY - Online meeting DA - 24.11.2022 KW - Qualitätsinfrastruktur KW - Digitalisierung KW - Kalibrierung KW - Konformitätsbewertung KW - Prüfung KW - digitale Transformation KW - Additive Fertigung PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-56384 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Koch, Claudia T1 - QI-DIGITAL - Eine moderne Qualitätsinfrastruktur in Zeiten zunehmender Digitalisierung N2 - QI-Digital ist eine Initiative der BAM gemeinsam mit den zentralen Akteuren der Qualitätsinfrastruktur (QI) in Deutschland. Sie zielt darauf ab, gemeinsam Lösungen für eine moderne QI vor dem Hintergrund der zunehmenden Digitalisierung zu entwickeln. Im Vortrag wird ein Überblick zu den Zielen und Maßnahmen im Projekt gegeben, insbesondere hinsichtlich der beiden BAM-Use Cases „Additive Fertigung“ und „Sichere und verlässliche Wasserstofftankstelle“ sowie der QI-Cloud, die ein wesentlicher Baustein für das strukturelle Fundament einer QI-Digital darstellt. T2 - Fraunhofer Materials - 7. Verbundinterner Workshop »MDS - Materials Data Space®« CY - Online meeting DA - 26.01.2022 KW - Qualitätsinfrastruktur KW - Digitalisierung KW - Wasserstofftankstelle KW - Additive Fertigung KW - QI-Cloud PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-54307 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Koch, Claudia T1 - Vertrauen in Qualität und Sicherheit in der Digitalisierung. QI-Digital: Eine Initiative der zentralen Akteure der Qualitätsinfrastruktur in Deutschland N2 - „Made in Germany“ steht für Vertrauen in Qualität und Sicherheit, das auch in der digitalen und grünen Transformation gelten soll.  In einer zunehmend digitalisierten Welt muss auch die Qualitätssicherung von Produkten, Prozessen und Dienstleistungen neu gedacht werden. Ziel der Initiative QI-Digital ist es, die bewährte Qualitätsinfrastruktur (QI) noch besser zu machen. Für eine moderne und effiziente Qualitätssicherung. Die zentralen Akteure der deutschen QI haben sich in QI-Digital zusammengeschlossen, um konkrete Lösungen für innovative Anwendungsfälle zu entwickeln. Dabei ist ein ganzheitlicher und praxisbezogener Ansatz wichtig, in dem ein weiter Kreis interessierter Stakeholder aktiv eingebunden wird. Im Kurzvortrag wird die Initiative, inkl. ihrer Akteure, Ziele, Projekte und Beteiligungsmöglichkeiten vorgestellt. T2 - Treffen BDI Arbeitskreis Technikpolitik CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 06.09.2022 KW - Qualitätsinfrastruktur KW - Digitalisierung KW - Wasserstofftankstelle KW - Additive Fertigung KW - QI-Cloud KW - digitale Transformation PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-55635 LA - deu 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 JF - Accreditation and Quality Assurance 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 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-556396 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00769-022-01514-x SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - Springer AN - OPUS4-55639 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Abad Andrade, Carlos Enrique A1 - You, Zengchao A1 - Richter, Silke A1 - Benner, Philipp A1 - Recknagel, Sebastian T1 - The use of reference materials to improve the calibration strategy in glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy with machine learning N2 - Glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GD-OES) is a technique for the analysis of solids such as metals, semiconductors, and ceramics. A low-pressure glow discharge plasma is applied in this system, which ‘sputters’ and promotes the sample atoms to a higher energy state. When the atoms return to their ground state, they emit light with characteristic wavelengths, which a spectrometer can detect. Thus, GD-OES combines the advantages of ICP-OES with solid sampling techniques, which enables it to determine the bulk elemental composition and depth profiles. However, direct solid sampling methods such as glow-discharge spectroscopy require reference materials for calibration due to the strong matrix effect. Reference materials are essential when the accuracy and reliability of measurement results need to be guaranteed to generate confidence in the analysis. These materials are frequently used to determine measurement uncertainty, validate methods, suitability testing, and quality assurance. In addition, they guarantee that measurement results can be compared to recognized reference values. Unfortunately, the availability of certified reference materials suited to calibrate all elements in different matrix materials is limited. Therefore various calibration strategies and the preparation of traceable matrix-matched calibration standards will be discussed. Machine learning is an essential component of the growing field of data science. Through statistical methods, algorithms are trained to make classifications or predictions, uncovering key insights within data mining projects. Therefore, it was tried in our work to combine GD-OES with machine learning strategies to establish a new and robust calibration model, which can be used to identify the elemental composition and concentration of metals from a single spectrum. For this purpose, copper reference materials from different manufacturers, which contain various impurity elements, were investigated using GD-OES. The obtained spectra information are evaluated with different algorithms (e.g., gradient boosting and artificial neural networks), and the results are compared and discussed in detail. T2 - Winter Conference on Plasma Chemistry 2022 CY - Tucson, AZ, USA DA - 17.01.2022 KW - GDOES KW - Machine learning KW - Reference materials KW - Calibration KW - Cooper PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-56497 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Ladu, Luana A1 - Koch, Claudia A1 - Asna Ashari, Parsa A1 - Blind, K. A1 - Castka, P. T1 - Digitalization in conformity assessment in Mexico - A QI-FoKuS study T2 - Digitalization in conformity assessment worldwide N2 - This report summarizes findings from the first comprehensive study on digitalization in conformity assessment in Mexico. The reults are based on data from a survey among conformity assessment bodies (CABs) conducted in 2022. It highlights the digital maturity of the organizations, the motives, benefits and obstacles of digital transformation as well as the actual technology trends. This study is part of a global project that covers various other countries (see www.qi-fokus.de). KW - COVID-19 KW - Calibration KW - Certification KW - Conformity assessment KW - Conformity assessment body KW - Digital transformation KW - Digitalization KW - Laboratory KW - Quality infrastructure KW - TIC KW - Testing PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-563645 UR - https://www.qi-fokus.de SP - 1 EP - 44 PB - Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-56364 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Ladu, Luana A1 - Koch, Claudia A1 - Asna Ashari, Parsa A1 - Blind, K. A1 - Castka, P. T1 - Digitalization in conformity assessment in the United Kingdom - A QI-FoKuS study T2 - Digitalization in conformity assessment worldwide N2 - This report summarizes findings from the first comprehensive study on digitalization in conformity assessment in the United Kingdom. The reults are based on data from a survey among conformity assessment bodies (CABs) conducted in 2022. It highlights the digital maturity of the organizations, the motives, benefits and obstacles of digital transformation as well as the actual technology trends. This study is part of a global project that covers various other countries (see www.qi-fokus.de). KW - COVID-19 KW - Calibration KW - Certification KW - Conformity assessment KW - Conformity assessment body KW - Digital transformation KW - Digitalization KW - Laboratory KW - Quality infrastructure KW - TIC KW - Testing PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-565346 UR - https://www.qi-fokus.de SP - 1 EP - 44 PB - Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-56534 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -