conformance specification in procurement

The test suites are available athttp://xw2k.nist.gov/xml/index.html. brand-name specifications has the effect of limiting the bidding 0000009274 00000 n Examples of Conformance to specifications in a sentence. conformity testing - conformity assessment by means of testing. Specifications sometimes need to address: Specifications may describe several different ways to accomplish its operation (e.g., a choice of file formats or codes). Departments wishing to For example, Apple maintains a page about EU compliance, and here is one of their DoCs. The buyer uses the results of the testing to verify that a seller provides a product that conforms to the specification and meet procurement requirements. Give examples of performance specification. requires something unique, to be custom made or custom built, as legitimate but limited place in public purchasing. 0000009883 00000 n /Filter /LZWDecode A profile is a subset of the overall specifications that includes all of the functionality necessary to satisfy the requirements of a particular community of users. In addition, it requires high level of maturity of internal requesting customer department. (3) list reproducible test methods to be used in testing for The conformance clause of a specification is a high-level description of what is required of implementations. Acceptance/rejection of such item needed will be according to the performance stated in the specification With performance specs, it will take more time for the procurement process as you may get totally different proposals and you need to discuss and validate them internally; however it opens the door for innovation as suppliers are free to suggest any workable solution which may improve functionality, cost & to be more sustainable option it's very suitable in case requesting department is not very well established so that you will be depending on suppliers' experience. Used wooden pallets are Euro-pallets type (120cm x 100cm). Level 2 includes all of level 1 and also additional functionality. 0000003127 00000 n Accompanying the actual test files is an XML test description file that contains pertinent information for each of the tests included in the distribution. It is best practice to ensure that suppliers are contractually required to provide line item spend details. service that ill satisfy a particular need at an economical cost Although conformance testing is not a guarantee for interoperability, it is an essential step towards achieving interoperability. Official websites use .gov Early stage specifications can be seen as part of the review with the customer (internal or external) about what they are looking to achieve on the project. by vendors to add products to the QPL. Nevertheless, the larger and more varied the set of inputs is, the more confidence can be placed in an implementation whose testing generates no errors. The suite may be a set of programs, a set of instructions for manual action, or another appropriate alternative. Tip - The purchase specification is to allow purchasing to seek competitive quotations by forwarding the purchase specification to prospective suppliers. sizable latitude in how to accomplish the end purpose. 0000007164 00000 n There is sometimes confusion between the two terms, however, in most cases, these two terms mean exactly the same thing and often comes down to the personal preference of the company that needs the certificate. Depending on the nature of the electronic device being imported, you will either need to go through a more comprehensive FCC certification or can submit your own Suppliers Declaration of Conformity. Lets look at the difference between the two: For RF Devices with the greatest potential to cause harmful interference to radio services like smartphones, Bluetooth speakers, earbuds, etc, that emit radiation a self-declaration is not acceptable to comply with FCC regulations and they must be certified by an FCC-recognized Telecommunication Certification Body (TCB) based on an evaluation of the supporting documentation and test data submitted by the responsible party (e.g., the manufacturer or importer) to the TCB. There are two main types of specification when contracting namely: #1 CONFORMANCE SPECIFICATION With this type of specification the buyer says what they want and how they want it and the supplier has to meet this Examples of conformance specification are: Engineering drawing A chemical formula Model name, number or brand etc Three of the test suites that are being developed are: XML Test Suite - The XML test suite for XML processors contains over 2000 test files and an associated test report. What are the types of specifications when contracting? The initial version of the test suite will not include the formatting objects part of XSL; however research is underway to determine how NIST can make a contribution to this part of the specification. I like the point about cost only .. A certificate issuing organization is responsible for issuing certificates for products determined to be conformant. Ready to get your copy? A certificate of conformity, or CoC, is issued by an authorized party (sometimes the manufacturer, sometimes an independent laboratory) and states that the product meets the required standards or specification. and others may require laboratory tests. Do you have any questions or experiences to share about certificates of conformity? What are the purpose of specification in procurement? The conformance clause identifies what must conform and how It is a neutral mechanism to judge a product against the criteria of a standard or specification. What is the difference between conformance specification and performance specification? The CoC can either be requested by a buyer to ensure the product being manufactured has been tested and passes the set criteria within a specification and meets both technical and safety requirements,or it would be a mandatory requirement as stated by country regulations and law for certain products, such as Bluetooth devices being sold in the USA. A specification becomes an essential contract management document which is used to ensure that the chosen supplier provides what is specified. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Conformance to specification means to meet the regulatory requirements; Customer needs means to meet the customer reasonable specific requirements. According to the FCC (47 CFR Section 2.906): Equipment that consists of only a radio transmitter (not a transceiver) such as remote control transmitters; land mobile radio transmitters and wireless medical telemetry transmitters are required to be approved using the certification procedure. If such a list is provided, the starting point for the development of the test suite is the list of assertions for the standard. It is important to note that certification cannot exist without validation, but validation can exist without certification. Buyer requires conformance to the Specification. 2. The main reason a CoC is required at customs is to prove a product that the product being imported meets the required standard(s). Performance requirements describe the characteristics and Shipping of cartons will be in 20 container & max optimization of container. more interested in how it performs, how well it performs, and at https://www.nist.gov/itl/ssd/information-systems-group/what-thing-called-conformance. When validation is coupled with certification, successful completion of conformance testing results in the issuance of a certificate (or brand) indicating that the implementation conforms to the appropriate specification. Some may require that committees test the Does it come from a particularly influential stake-holder? Does a KitchenAid have a juicer attachment? The main reason a CoC is required at customs is to prove a product that the product . Applications often do not require all the features within a standard. It here unfortunatley all to often a stage where procurement are left out and not involved from the very begining stages. [Importers Guide], What is a certificate of conformity (CoC). Although the terms validation and conformance testing are often interchanged, they are not the same. The decision to issue a certificate is based on the testing results and established criteria for issuing certificates. Factors that determine you to choose conformance specification. ISO/IEC TR 13233 defined conformance and conformity as "fulfillment by a product, process or service of all relevant specified conformance requirements." 3. (If the specifications don't describe the different approaches in the first place, then it's an implementer detail irrelevant to conformance.). Design specifications are an interpretation of what the customer needs. How many times have you looked at this afore mentioned specification and instantly picked holes in the acheivabilty of the desired outcome? The conformance clause identifies what must conform and how conformance can be met. Typically, the decision to establish a testing program is based on weighing the benefits achieved by obtaining conformance versus the costs of creating and running a validation and certification program. Is it a marketing or business requirement? and more interested in what a product does. conformity assessment - any activity concerned with determining directly or indirectly that relevant requirements are fulfilled. If you cant describe what your organization need on piece of paper then imagine how suppliers can understand your needs, then quote/propose the right solution for it. Inspections will be conducted on the products at delivery:6.1.1 Any defect on the products.6.1.2 Conformance to specifications and functionality.. Conformance to specifications requires formal data specifications, which may address any or all of data . The best position is to list A testing laboratory can be an organization or individual, and can either be accredited from a formal accreditation organization such as NIST's National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) or recognized by the buyer, seller, and certificate issuer, as qualified to perform the testing. should be limited and justified before solicitation. The size of staff necessary to do Examples of conformance specification are: In this case the buyer simply explains problems the product should solve and the supplier provides such. DOM Test Suite - NIST has developed a comprehensive set of tests that will check for compliance with the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 Recommendation. predicated on a written specification which includes certain It is well recognized that conformance testing is a way to ensure that "standard-based" products are implemented. In contrast to the design approach, Taking the time to think, write & challenge what your internal customer need is one of the most important keys to have efficient, smooth, transparent & successful procurement process. required, testing methods, and characteristics that the 0000066380 00000 n 0000006382 00000 n Lets Start by looking at a Procurement functions relationship with Specifications. Conformance specs: Paper combination is: 3 layers carton (Layer1 is Kraft liner of 125GSM + Layer2 is Test/Recycled liner of 100GSM + Layer3 is Kraft liner of 125GSM) with mentioning Flute type . DEFINITIONS 2.1 Centroidal Area. In such a case, the conformance clause should specify whether or not an implementation is considered to be conformant if it does not implement each approach? When all deviations and omissions are eliminated, the implementation conforms to the specification. Usually testing programs are initiated for those specifications or standards for critical applications, for interoperability with other applications, and/or for security of the systems. specifications by bn reviewed by rh this procurement is being solicited as a small purchase request for quotation (rfq). SPECIFICATION DEFINITIONS AND INSTRUCTIONS. John Spacey, May 01, 2017. Materials used must be 0000007141 00000 n A lock ( This is a document, parallel to but distinct from the official specifications, that contains a list of recognized extensions to the standard. It is not sufficient to have this paper, of course. Substitutions or alterations will not be permitted without Company's written consent, which consent shall not be unreasonably withheld, conditioned, or delayed. 0000008556 00000 n The understanding is that an implementation that is determined to satisfy each assertion will be considered to be in conformance to the standard. Sensor installation and measurement location specifications, performance and equipment specifications, test procedures, and data reduction procedures are included in this specification. 0000005693 00000 n Here, you may receive totally different proposals which includes totally different solutions, however all of them may be accepted as they all will be achieving the required performance. In essence this is less rigid than conformance specification. You must translate the EU declaration of conformity into the language or languages required by the EU country in which your product is sold. Therefore, the list of assertions should be as comprehensive as possible. When a requisition does not include an existing standard, specification or purchase description, which the contracting officer considers . When all deviations and omissions are eliminated, the implementation conforms to the specification. For any . Vendors should be provided the ~ F3!"c|?f0u{X)(oMU1H"Yq66fI1ar3f$cq. XSLT Test Suite NIST is working with W3C and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) to develop a comprehensive test suite for the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) processors. The test documentation describes how the testing is to be done and the directions for the tester to follow. The meaning of the words "shall," "should," and "may," in the context of the given standard, could be defined in the conformance clause or be as defined by organizations such as ISO. Some clients have asked us what is a certificate of conformity over the years, and we wrote this article to answer that question. of Procurement has approved the use. Though there are so many things that make a good well rounded specification im going to narrow it down to 4 simple factors; There should be only one way to interpret the requirements of the customer. Validation with certification is often used as a prerequisite for procurement. is characteristic of construction or personal services contracts. a specification should be written to encourage, not discourage, An official website of the United States government. For software developers, using conformance test suites early-on in the development process can help improve the quality of their implementations by identifying areas in which they conform as well as those areas in which they do not. Specifications can be attributed in two ways; 1) Attributes - related to things such as the part, component or raw material. Each test should lend itself to providing objective, reproducible, unambiguous, and accurate results. The buyer uses the results of the testing to verify that a seller provides a product that conforms to the specification and meet procurement requirements. In this example, while the mattresses were not required to be tested by a third party laboratory, the mattress manufacturer voluntarily chose to do so and must provide the information about that laboratory. What steps lead conformance to specification? Correct implementation and utilization of standards leads to portability and interoperability. Without knowing whats really needed costs can be far higher than required and the solution procured for the business not fit for purpose. What we wrote above is based only on our understanding of the regulatory requirements. Some standards have no official testing organizations. For ensure testability of a specification/standard, care should be taken in the wording of the specifications itself. procurement program and to evaluate the implementation of quality assurance (QA) program requirements that ensure that the appropriate structural concrete meeting approved concrete specifications is used in the UPF construction activities. These are certainly all legitimate requirements but they are far from complete. controlled conditions and assessments made of their performance 5. Often times, errors or ambiguities in the specification are discovered. Conformance involves two major components: (1) a test tool and (2) a testing program (e.g., certification or branding). Therefore, a CoC (whereby the blade manufacturer writes that the blades conform to specific checklists) must be provided. At last the month and year should be shown and the city, state, and country needs to be shown. A standard may classify features as "mandatory" vs. "optional," and provide a table listing features so classified. They often refer to particular documents, and/or particular information within them. in-house terminology. Some importers choose to purchase components for their new products that are already certified to avoid needing to go through the testing and certification process. represents the kind of thinking in which architects and engineers Thus, quality of conformance equates to conformance to specifications within an acceptable tolerance range. ANSI/BIFMA standards are go-to references when evaluating the safety and durability of furniture products during the specification and procurement process. 7 What is the definition of quality of conformance? Give examples of conformance specification. >> For example, statements indicating that an implementation "shall," "should," or "may" implement a certain feature. @hA hbF`h`. This type of conformance testing makes use of publicly available test suites or tools and is not associated with any formal validation or certification program. % To illustrate the characteristic of Completeness in Specifications consider my proposed user requirements for a new car. 0000007908 00000 n There are two main types of specification when contracting namely: With this type of specification the buyer says what they want and how they want it and the supplier has to meet this. specification, having been used historically in public The test suite will focus on XSL transformations (XSLT) and XML Path Language (XPath). sound evaluation criteria. specification is less interested in how a product is made, and Elements that should typically be included in a CoC are: On the US CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) website, one can find several samples of CoCs. Official websites use .gov The validation process consists of the steps necessary to perform the conformance testing by using an official test suite in a prescribed manner. Without a CoC, products may be impounded, confiscated, and in some case destroyed. These extensions may eventually migrate into future versions of the standard. Conformance with Specification. Get in touch with me and I will give you a tailored recommendation or quotation. Request for Proposals and purchase agreements commonly require conformance to these standards. suitability of specifications, Procurement cannot initiate or 0000005716 00000 n characteristics of the item desired. contracting for buildings, highways, and other public works, and How To Manufacture A Product In China (without losing your shirt)? specification. Here, suppliers need to get like briefing about working environment of such item needed then they will start thinking/designing a solution for you and maybe they will even propose different options in which a lot of collaborative and joint discussions/sessions will be needed between suppliers with requesting departments and procurement. Enter a Melbet promo code and get a generous bonus, An Insight into Coupons and a Secret Bonus, Organic Hacks to Tweak Audio Recording for Videos Production, Bring Back Life to Your Graphic Images- Used Best Graphic Design Software, New Google Update and Future of Interstitial Ads. There are two types of specifications, Design and Performance. There are two main approaches to handling implementation specific extensions to a standard. 0000005022 00000 n The conformance clause is a part or collection of parts of a specification that defines the requirements, criteria, or conditions that shall be satisfied by an implementation in order to claim conformance. specifications; performance specifications; and the Qualified 4 What are the characteristics of a good specification in procurement? All the profiles would include level 1; this is basically a core + optional module approach. Although policies and procedures are not issues for the standard specifications, the standards body may be involved in their development. 2) Actions - related to things such as functions, processes, ,procedures, services, performance. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. The specification must: Be set out in the relevant Procurement Documents clearly describe what is required detail the characteristics required not refer to the following: brands or trade names (IUT) is the object that is being tested for conformance. A specification is often a type of technical standard. Certificate of Conformity, According to the FCC (47 CFR Section 2.906), Sofeast: Quality Assurance In China Or Vietnam For Beginners [eBook], Assembly Fixtures: A Valuable Productivity and Quality Tool, Process Engineering: Limitations of Most Chinese Suppliers, 6 Tips To Combat Common Recurring Quality Issues From Your Supplier, ISTA Testing: Do It And Stop Worrying About Product Damage In Transit, How USA & Canada SME Importers Feel about China in early 2023, Description of the product covered in the CoC, List of all safety regulations the product must pass, The CoC must clearly list each of the safety regulations the product must be tested for, refer to related tests reports or certificates, Importer or manufacturers identification, Provide the name, full mailing address, and telephone number of the importer or domestic manufacturer certifying the product. products are equal and this basis must be predicated upon Click here for Terms & Conditions. QualityInspection.org does not present this information as a basis for you to make decisions, and we do not accept any liability if you do so. A defect can lead to a failure that might result in loss of life. 2) Actions - related to things such as functions, processes,. Paper combination is: 3 layers carton (Layer1 is Kraft liner of 125GSM + Layer2 is Test/Recycled liner of 100GSM + Layer3 is Kraft liner of 125GSM) with mentioning Flute type and total GSM. These requirements are specified in a standard or specification as either part of a conformance clause or in the body of the specification. This early stage work also provides an understanding of the performance requirements of the project, so that when discussions develop on complexes, entities, space, locations, elements, systems and products, these form part of the build-up of a specification. 0000002442 00000 n Supplier Resources. How do you know that the software conforms? In recent years, the term conformity has gained international use and has generally replaced the term conformance in ISO documents. developing your specifications, however, Procurement does not Several of the W3C Working Groups have developed conformance test suites or tools e.g., SVG, CSS, and HTML. Equipment that only contains digital circuitry (does not contain a radio transmitter) such as computer peripherals, microwave ovens consumer ISM equipment, switching power supplies, LED light bulbs, radio receivers and TV interface devices are subject to approval using the SDoC procedure or may optionally use the certification procedure. performance, quality or essential characteristics must be Similarly, validation cannot exist without a test suite, but a test suite can exits without validation. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS The conformance clause identifies what must conform and how conformance can be met. DEVELOPING SPECIFICATIONS: Although The following are illustrative examples. A good specification should do four things: (1) Identify minimum requirements, (2) allow for a competitive bid, (3) list reproducible test methods to be used in testing for compliance with specifications, and (4) provide for an equitable award at the lowest possible cost. My company Sofeast, can probably help you. Environment working temperature is between 15C 40C. competitors that can supply the product, the department head has This approach, used in both the Public and Private sectors is best described A conformance clause is a section of a specification that states all the requirements or criteria that must be satisfied to claim conformance to the specification. This bulletin presents an overview of conformance and addresses conformance to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendations for the Extensible Markup Language (XML) family of specifications. And just as important, why is this important? programs and staff activities. 0000003961 00000 n What is specification? The performance This button displays the currently selected search type. this would be prohibitive. The work is accomplished under the auspices of OASIS Technical Subcommittees, with contributions from OASIS member companies and in close coordination with the appropriate W3C Working Groups. 0000006359 00000 n Conformance means that a product meets the minimum requirements in the standard. [1] Gartner Group, a Stamford, CT based consulting company, [2] ISO/IEC Guide 2:1996, Standardization and Related Activities General Vocabulary, Webmaster | Contact Us | Our Other Offices, Created September 8, 2010, Updated August 25, 2016, Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. It should be possible to know where the Specification originated. requirements of the item being purchased. A locked padlock Its relatively easy, faster & straight forward to complete procurement process with conformance specs; however, it limits innovation as you dont really give chance to suppliers to suggest different solutions. As a procurement proffesional just think for a moment how many times has a fully agreed and signed of specification been put on your desk and requistioned without any prior input from your function? Requisition 1 provides the buyer with much more scope and freedom (you didn't want chopsticks then?).