Product safety stakeholders deemed third-party testing labs to have adequate capacity, sufficient expertise, and good work quality, according to an online survey conducted by PSL. While also getting generally high marks for communication skills and costs, labs scored lower in those areas than in the other three. A detailed discussion is on the PSL website at www.productsafetyletter.com/Free/233.aspx. Some highlights:
- Capacity: A plurality of respondents deemed capacity sufficient assuming demand does not increase much, but one respondent warned that EU toy safety and chemical directives coming in effect next year could push demand up.
- Expertise: The top answer was labs “know enough to do a good job,” the second best choice in a range from “more knowledgeable than I am” to “they just don’t get it.”
- Quality: Every respondent ranked either the industry overall as doing quality work or most labs as doing so. None saw most labs or the overall industry with poor quality.
- Communication: Although the top answer was that labs usually listen and communicate well, the second most frequent response was that this can be a frustrating area.
- Cost: Assessment of lab affordability seems linked to company size, with their smaller customers ranking labs worse than did larger users.
By Sean Oberle
