I'm still confused about it.
What do you mean by "it's primary goal is business"? By that do you mean these agencies' intent is:
- Serving manufacturers' business interests, by somehow facilitating testing and marketing?
OR
- Their own business interests, and it's all just creative new ways to make money, with questionable value?
The bottom-line concern for manufacturers is regulatory, so I don't see how these schemes, unless somehow tied to regulatory control, would have any reason to exist.
What do you mean by "it's primary goal is business"? By that do you mean these agencies' intent is:
- Serving manufacturers' business interests, by somehow facilitating testing and marketing?
OR
- Their own business interests, and it's all just creative new ways to make money, with questionable value?
The bottom-line concern for manufacturers is regulatory, so I don't see how these schemes, unless somehow tied to regulatory control, would have any reason to exist.
The (modern) certification in general (based on standards such as BS 5750 - ISO 9000) was created due to a simple business need - reduce the burden of inspection of suppliers. In a more general sense, the need was to show someone that my product met some requirement.
For a great historical overview, take a look at the attached file.
The certification "industry" was a obvious need to solve this problem, due to the possible conflict of interest of industries evaluating their own processes.
One interesting example is ISO/TS 16949. It was created by the the big automotive manufacturers for the same reason I mentioned above, to reduce the burden of their supplier inspection. This shifted the burden from the manufacturer to the supplier. The related certification scheme was also created, and after that, the big manufacturers simply said, "to work with me you will need to prove you comply with my quality standards, and the way to do this is to comply with this certification scheme".
Please note that the general "certification industry" nowadays is, in my opinion (and a lot of people think the same), a little rotten, because, between other factors, the certificate became for some simply a paper on the wall.
So
Why would a manufacturer need to seek out an accredited test-lab or certification body, unless the services they deliver are required for or facilitate regulatory needs?
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