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Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Conformity Assessment: Insights from a Multinational Study
(2021)
The COVID-19 pandemic has 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, are also affected by the associated disruptions. Their situation 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. Considering the roles and functions of CABs in economy, health, and innovation, the question arises 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 negative development of demand during the pandemic, facing restrictions in all countries. In addition, the pandemic had overall negative impact on the CABs’ investment and innovation activities. However, investments in digital infrastructure were increased as countermeasure, with CABs reporting an increased need for digitalization. Resources relevant to organizational resilience were available to different extents, affecting the speed of response to the challenges of the pandemic. The paper highlights and discusses results from in-depth analyses, which are relevant for policy makers and industry alike.
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Conformity Assessment: Insights from a Multinational Study
(2021)
The COVID-19 pandemic has 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, are also affected by the associated disruptions. Their situation 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. Considering the roles and functions of CABs in economy, health, and innovation, the question arises 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 negative development of demand during the pandemic, facing restrictions in all countries. In addition, the pandemic had overall negative impact on the CABs’ investment and innovation activities. However, investments in digital infrastructure were increased as countermeasure, with CABs reporting an increased need for digitalization. Resources relevant to organizational resilience were available to different extents, affecting the speed of response to the challenges of the pandemic. The paper highlights and discusses results from in-depth analyses, which are relevant for policy makers and industry alike.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has brought far-reaching changes for our society. Suddenly, millions of people spent the majority of their time at home - either due to a lock down or by switching from office to working remotely. This paper offers a literature review regarding pandemic-related behavioural changes and a first mapping of likely consequences for EU Ecodesign regulations. These impacts are considered for product groups that are already regulated by EU Ecodesign or are under discussion for future regulation. Furthermore, potential for smart home applications are analysed exemplarily. We identified which behavioural changes have the potential to become established in the long-term. This might need to result in adaptions for regulations under the Ecodesign Directive and EU-Energy Labelling regulations to better reflect the recently appeared usage profiles. It might require different priority settings regarding the product groups to be regulated and communicated to users, due to online shopping proliferation, to be updated. Changed behaviour can be observed in product groups such as ICT, consumer electronics and household appliances. Examples include the increased use of laptops and tablets for digital teaching, use of gaming devices and office equipment in private households (IT, printing and network devices) and changed cooking behaviour. This resulted in increased sales of some product types. Online sales became even more important than in-store sales, which also means that consumers are increasingly informed online about energy efficiency. More do-it-yourself (DIY) home projects result in more frequent - not yet regulated - DIY power tool use and over the long run might stimulate the need for (semi-)professional tools. The changes in behaviour patterns also offer the opportunity to optimize consumption by means of smart homes and smart products. However, the control of networked household appliances requires additional energy for standby states and data exchange. As an illustrative example, we discuss the conflict between higher energy consumption for smart system components and the possible optimization of consumption in private households.