User Advisory Committee Update
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As an International Accreditation Forum (IAF) Permanent Advisory Committee, the User Advisory Committee or UAC is comprised of industry and user association members of IAF who represent end-users of accredited conformity assessment. UAC members include: QuEST Forum, The Quality System for Feed Additives and Premixtures (FAMI-QS), Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC), GLOBALG.A.P, International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG), Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), Bruel & Kjaer Sound & Vibration Measurement A/S, Dental Trade Alliance (DTA), ENEL Servizi S.r.l., and the Federation of German Industries (BDI).
The UAC is committed to increasing the participation of other stakeholders and industry sectors that use accredited third party certification in their activities. With that in mind, the 13th meeting of the UAC, which occurred in Frankfurt, Germany, on April 2, 2017, was the most well attended UAC meeting to date with more than 17 attendees. Invited guests to the UAC meeting and post-meeting reception included IAF leadership, Nigel Croft representing TC 176 and a founding participant of the UAC, along with representatives of food industry organizations such as BRC Global Standards, FSSC 22000, GMP+ International and International Featured Standards (IFS).
As UAC membership continues to grow, we remain committed to providing feedback to the IAF for further improvement and harmonization in support of “Certified Once, Accepted Everywhere”. UAC members are actively involved on the IAF Task Force (TF) on Conformity Assessment Schemes, which defines common assessment criteria for all schemes that are endorsed by IAF and the Database Management Committee (DMC), which is investigating the creation of a database of Accredited Certifications.
UAC members also continue to support the IAF Strategic Plan, specifically:
• Strategic Direction 02: To improve the peer evaluation process, including ensuring the availability of competent peer evaluator resources at the international and regional level.
• Strategic Direction 03: To promote wider acceptance of accreditation, including accredited conformity assessment results, and the IAF MLA by major stakeholders e.g. regulators and end users.
• Strategic Direction 04: To improve consistency of accreditation practices among ABs.
The UAC is currently working to define a plan to raise greater awareness of the activities of the IAF and the UAC, and to continue to increase the participation of other industry sectors and stakeholders that use accredited third party certification in their activities. To obtain feedback and to involve a wider group of stakeholders, the UAC has proposed a “User Day” event for 2018.
UAC Members and Guests in Frankfurt
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