Opinion of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on factory inspection in the event of PSE, PSC, corona disaster "Remote factory inspection is also possible!"

Hello. It is a hori of the manager.

The new coronavirus has completely changed its recent economic activities and still has a tremendous scar, but in fact it has a major impact in the world of authentication.

It is a problem of the factory inspection by the inspection organization apart from the stop of the Chinese factory which had been told up to now.

The problems of japanese factories being conducted by inspection institutions in Japan, such as JET, JQA, and UL Japan, are now becoming less and less problematic.

The problem is when japanese inspection organizations such as JQA conduct overseas factory inspections that cross the seas of China and Taiwan.

Currently, due to the covid-19 virus, two weeks of quarantine is being imposed globally near the airport if you travel abroad. As a result, going abroad itself is risky, and each inspection organization continues to refrain from factory inspections across the sea.

Moreover, it is the opposite, and it is the same when the inspection organization in China such as CQC performs the inspection of the factory in Japan and the factory in Taiwan, etc.

However, when it comes to the world of certification, it is the business operators that eat the most. In the first place, it is rare that the country where the inspection organization and the production plant are located conveniently agree, and in particular, psc etc. are often allowed to inspect only Japanese inspection organizations, while most of the production is in a foreign situation, so what should businesses do on earth?

In this article, I would like to explain the new developments related to PSE and PSC that have been identified by our unique actions.

The beginning of the thing (1): The customer's PSC inspection has stopped at the factory inspection

In fact, at the end of last year, there was a customer who was asked to inspect PSC lasers. Our production plant is located in Shenzhen, China. The sample inspection was completed safely, and in January of this year, we also provided on-site guidance before the no. 2 inspection (factory inspection).

After that, it was in the state that the factory inspection by the inspection organization was only left after the Chinese New Year.

After that, as you all know, the coronavirus problem that spread all over the world in the blink of an eye from the end of January occurred, the Chinese New Year was extended, and the traffic between countries was also restricted.

Furthermore, since China was the birthplace of the coronavirus at that time, it was prohibited to travel to that country itself.

Of course, the dispatch of inspectors to the Chinese factory by the inspection organization was also suspended indefinitely. Of course, it was the business operator (customer) who requested certification that ate a discount here.

I say things from the customer's point of view, but as an inspection organization, it simply stops without refunding the advance payment from the customer, but from the customer's point of view, it may be a big damage.

It is true that the coronavirus is force majeure and we know it is not anyone's responsibility, but the customer felt sorry for it without any remedies.

Customers have been contacted several times since then, but they have been crushed at all.

The beginning of the thing (2) A phone call from JQA at the time of the expiration date of the PSC laser

On the other hand, in China, where the impact of the coronavirus has been subsiding in Japan country, and in China, where the outbreak occurred, most people are not even wearing masks, such as the coronavirus cold that blows everywhere, so a phone call has arrived at our company.

"Your PSC laser will expire in early 2021 next year, and new inspections will be required to continue using it after the deadline. Will it be inspected? (You're going to inspect it, right?) If they don't test us, we're in trouble because we don't have a job."

It was the content. The parentheses are just my analogy, but the person in charge said that it was unavoidable to sound like that.

As for me, as a returning sword,

"I would like to ask you to tell us in order to determine whether or not to conduct the test, but I am aware that we are currently unable to dispatch inspectors from your organization to our affiliated production plant in China due to the impact of the coronavirus, is there any change in that regard?"

In response,

"That's true, and there are no changes there at the moment, but will there be an inspection, and there may be any changes while we start testing." It was.

Isn't it crazy as a businessman to recommend something that doesn't promise a solution? With that in mind, I hung up the phone to consider it for the time being.

Frankly, for PSC lasers, we really thought that it would be better to certify them again or not, but we thought that the problem for us was that we could not perform factory inspections at overseas factories more than that.

Since we handle not only the Japan inspection agency → the inspection of overseas factories, but also the schema of inspection of overseas factories (including Japan) → overseas inspection organizations, we decided to conduct a direct consultation with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry once.

Opinion of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on factory inspections

What I called was the person in charge who had been responding to the previous inspection of illegal lasers on Amazon, or when our lasers were subject to PSC trial inspections.

It was a story a few years ago, so I thought that it may have already been transferred, but when I called, I was still in charge, and I was very relieved that I was able to connect with people who can communicate.

As expected, I had the impression that I was very clear with a veteran feeling, but first of all, I frankly asked the question about our laser test, "I was contacted without being promised to conduct factory inspections, for example, can I do not perform it by remote correspondence?"

Then, as the answer,

"The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) first fundamentally leaves the way of responding to the judgment of each inspection organization. For example, as you said, there may be remote response, and there is also the case that the second inspection (factory inspection) is not carried out only by sample inspection.

For a while, we will try to move it at the discretion of each inspection organization, and if there is a safety problem, we will notice the inspection organization again. Basically, we do not expect to extend the expiration date of the certificate." It was that.

As an impression when I heard this answer,

(1) Since the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has this view, it is only possible for the business operator to decide the response in consultation with the inspection organization. As long as the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has approved it, the inspection organization cannot help moving.
(2) They say it in a good way, but they do nothing and throw completely round against the inspection agency.

How you feel is different for each person, but if you start talking about (2), it will be a story about politics and a bureaucracy, so I will omit it.

In addition, it is true that there was a sense of incongruity in there though it is not understood whether it is insufficient of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry or the ability to collect information of the inspection organization to not know the opinion of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry which becomes their upper organization by the person of the inspection organization.

In any case, it is true that we have realized that we can hope for new developments.

For customers whose inspections have stopped since the beginning of 2009,(It is true that it was slow to start moving), it is also certain that the light was still visible, so I contacted the inspection agency in charge first that we should negotiate with the inspection agency in charge.

We would like to consider the implementation of our lasers positively.

Example of factory inspection of PSE actually running by our company

It is a little before the factory inspection problem of PSC laser, which is the main part of this story, but at the same time, we are contracting overseas inspection organizations to certify PSE field surveys of overseas factories when viewed from that country. Specifically, it is a Chinese inspection organization → Taiwan factory.

The PSE is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of the same as psc, and the views on overseas factory inspections are the same.

As a practical matter, we are preparing to conduct factory inspections of taiwan factories by Chinese inspection agencies remotely.

Roughly speaking of factory inspection, what you do is to check whether the factory is equipped to produce and (voluntarily) inspect the product, whether the factory really exists, how it is produced on the line in the entire factory, etc.

If the intermediary (the person of the agency company) firmly divides and shoots the necessary parts remotely (video) properly, it is possible to perform without problems.

Of course, all concerned are aware that this is not a regular approach, but a special response to the last, and we recognize that this method will not be carried out if the coronavirus is over and overseas travel is lifted completely.

After all, it may be significant for inspectors to check the factory site in real life, and there may be a new flashpoint of problems that have made remotes better. However, as for the current situation, I think that you can remember as knowledge that "remote correspondence of factory inspection is possible".

We can handle remote work even if there are no Japanese at the factory site

Even if remote correspondence is possible, for example, if you use a Japanese inspection agency, if there is no human resources who can speak Japanese at the local factory (for example, China factory), you may think that you will not be able to respond after all due to language problems.

Don't worry about that. In our company, Japanese-language-capable Chinese engineers who are familiar with Japanese certification can participate in remote work.

It is possible to listen to the words of Japanese inspectors, understand them, and convey them to the Chinese factory side, and conversely, to understand the words of the Chinese factory and to convey them to Japanese inspectors.

In any case, remote work of factory inspections between different countries that could not be carried out by coronavirus is allowed, and we can arrange them, so please feel free to contact us if you have any orders or consultations.

However, this article is current as of October 2020, and we are not responsible for how long the remote work of factory inspection can be carried out, so please understand that point in advance.

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