PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
Brea, June 9, 2020
International Accreditation Service, Inc. (“IAS”) announces additional requirements for IAS-accredited organizations conducting inspections or testing of plywood products manufactured in Brazil. The following additional oversight procedures are effective immediately:
In connection with upcoming reassessments of Timber Products Inspection, Inc. (“TPI”) and PFS Corporation (“PFS-TECO”) in 2020, IAS will consider publicly available information from the pending action U.S. Structural Plywood Integrity Coalition et al v. PFS Corporation, Case No. 0:19-cv-62225-RKA (S.D. Fla.), regarding the accreditation of TPI and PFS-TECO to serve as inspection and testing agencies serving the plywood industry in Brazil.
IAS will increase the frequency of assessments for all accredited customers approved under their scope of accreditation to conduct inspections of plywood products manufactured in Brazil from a reassessment every two years to an annual reassessment.
Although ISO/IEC 17020 includes no regional requirement, for all accredited customers approved under their scope of accreditation to conduct inspections of plywood products manufactured in Brazil, IAS will include one or more Brazilian manufacturers among those inspections witnessed during the course of IAS’s reassessment.
In addition, IAS is recommending that the PS 1 Standing Committee, the organization responsible for amendments to or revisions of the PS 1-09 product standard for plywood, which is now the PS 1-19 standard, consider a number of amendments to that standard. IAS recommends to the PS 1 Standing Committee the following:
a. IAS recommends that the PS 1 Standing Committee consider whether to adopt enhanced oversight procedures governing certification, inspection and testing agencies qualified under the PS 1-09 product standard.
b. IAS recommends that the PS 1 Standing Committee consider whether to adopt the following quality assurance enforcement provisions or equally effective alternative measures:
c. Requiring creation of an organization or committee similar to the American Lumber Standard Committee created pursuant to the PS 20 product standard, governing structural lumber in the U.S. This organization would be empowered pursuant to contracts with each of its certifications, inspection and testing agencies, to conduct unannounced field examination at any of its agency’s licensee plants or facilitate and to conduct surveillance check inspections in U.S. ports, storage facilities, distribution yards and retail establishments.
d. A Board of Review elected by the new organization or committee would have the power to assess the competency, reliability, adequacy and integrity of accredited plywood certification inspection and testing agencies and the authority to take actions which, in the judgment of the Board of Review, are necessary to maintain the integrity and standards of the PS 1-09 structural plywood standard. These would include placing an agency on probation, suspending the accreditation of an agency or revoking the recognition of the agency.
e. Clarify the PS 1-09 product standard (currently the PS 1-19 standard) to require accredited plywood certification, inspection and testing agencies to adhere strictly to the qualification testing requirements set out in PS 1-09, have no authority to grant interim approval to produce PS 1-09 plywood without qualification testing, conduct inspections and testing with sufficient frequency, avoid use of conflicted or unqualified subcontractors as inspectors and take appropriate corrective action when inspections reveal serious nonconformances.
For more information please contact:
IAS, International Accreditation Service, Inc., 3060 Saturn Street, Suite 100, Brea, California 92821-1732 U.S.A. Ph: +1(562)364-8201, email: ganas@iasonline.org, web: www.iasonline.org
