Quality Certification Alliance has three company classifications:
QCA Certified Supplier is a company that has signed an agreement attesting that all merchandise manufactured for promotional purposes under their auspices complies with the Quality Certification Alliance's Standards for Compliance, has provided self-assessments of their own facilities to the Alliance's Program Administration and maintains self-assessments of the facilities in which their work is contracted. Additionally, this company actively engages in developing and implementing corrective actions to continuously ensure all facilities are upholding compliance standards; and, most importantly, engages third party auditors to validate self-assessments. QCA Certified Suppliers have successfully completed the QCA accreditation process including third party audits of their headquarters offices as well as their supply chain. The QCA certification lasts for 2 years and includes random off year audits to ensure an Accredited Supplier is continuing to manage and improve their internal process and continues to effectively detect and deter unsafe or non compliant product before it gets into the supply chain. Only Certified Suppliers may use the QCA Seal of Approval. Certified Suppliers are also eligible to use QCA marketing materials.
QCA Applicant for Accreditation is a company who has signed an agreement attesting that all merchandise manufactured for promotional purposes under their auspices complies with the Quality Certification Alliance's Standards of Compliance and has entered into the QCA Accreditaton Process. Companies may not exceed an initial 1 year in applicant status and are not eligible to use the QCA Brand or marketing materials until they successfully complete the QCA Accreditation Process.
QCA Affiliate is a company not directly engaged in the manufacture of promotional merchandise, who has signed an agreement to adopt and adhere to the Quality Certification Alliance's Standards of Compliance as related to the work engaged in on behalf of QCA Certified Suppliers. Affiliate companies may not use the QCA Brand or marketing materials.
QCA Benefits
QCA Certification brings a number of benefits that, in addition to improving the safety of your product lines, will enhance the credibility of your organization. These benefits also directly impact both your top and bottom line results. Among the many QCA benefits are:
Industry Leadership
- Leadership role in improving industry standards.
- QCA Accreditation enhances an accredited supplier's reputation, increases brand value, and opens doors to accounts with the most demanding purchasing standards, ultimately growing sales.
- Differentiate QCA Certified Supplier products from competing product offerings thereby increasing demand for your products.
- Greater ROI for new or existing safe product efforts via independent 3rd party accreditation vs. self certification.
- Searchable QCA field in industry sourcing tools.
Compliance Program Development and Education Cost Savings
- Reduction of audit fatigue - harmonized industry standards will result in an overall reduction of the number of audits required of your organization.
- Compliance program development – dramatic reduction in the costs of developing independent, supplier-specific solutions.
- Reduction in consulting and/or compliance officer costs.
- Speed to delivery and ROI of legitimate 3rd party audited compliance program
- Document storage capabilities
- Testing documents
- Certificate of conformity documents
- Frequent updates and education on all rapidly changing regulatory requirements and how they specifically impact our industry.
- Education and training on new and relevant safety and compliance information, and are kept informed of changing global standards.
- QCA Executive Directors attend and report back on CPSC, ICPHSO and other industry product safety conferences.
- CPSC and product safety networking
Cost Reductions for
- QCA cost reductions for (among other things):
- Factory audit cost
- Product testing costs
- XRF gun costs
- QCA Certified Suppliers Benefits
- QCA Marketing to promotional products industry
- QCA Marketing to end users
- QCA Trade Association advertising cost reductions
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QCA Accreditation Scope
Recognizing industry accountability to assure clients and end users that products meet applicable measures of compliance, QCA Accreditation tests for the presence of and completeness of compliance programs, the effectiveness of those programs in detecting noncompliance, as well as the effectiveness in deterring noncompliance in the following five areas:
Product Safety
QCA Certified Suppliers have policies and procedures that are robust and able to deter, detect and prevent non-compliant product from shipping to customers. Those processes include:
- Commitment to assuring consumer safety and brand security
- Design requirements - legal, product, performance, raw material
- Testing and inspection - internal, third party, corrective actions
- Regulatory requirements - traceability
- Evaluating communication and documentation
- Recall protocol
Social Accountability
A Certified Supplier's policies and procedures ensure that those facilities that are part of its supply chain adhere to legal and ethical standards that are based on internationally agreed upon protocols of the UN Global Compact and include:
- Worker's rights
- Fair pay
- Physical working and living conditions
- Worker's safety
Environmental Stewardship
A Certified Supplier's policies and procedures promote an ongoing stewardship of the environment including:
- Recycling
- Restriction and monitoring for banned substances
- Resource management
Quality
A QCA Certified Supplier has in place standards governing product quality, from design through manufacturing, and procedures to monitor and verify that quality standards are maintained throughout. QCA Cerified Suppliers create an expectation of quality with:
- Quality manual - measures of quality, quality monitoring systems
- Inspections - pre-shipment, post-shipment
- Supplier qualification program
Supply Chain Security
A QCA Certified Supplier's policies and procedures meet the security criteria established by US Customs' C-TPAT program to protect our borders, encompassing both domestic and offshore process and facility review and including:
- Seals management on containers
- Physical plant security
- Supply chain visibility
- Security guards
- Access control
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QCA Certification Process
Synopsis
The QCA certification process is a comprehensive validation that your company has processes in place intended to detect and deter any non-compliant product from entering into the marketplace.
QCA Accreditation verifies compliance with local and national laws, as well as the laws of the country that may be importing the item for consumption. To this end, QCA seeks to harmonize the ever-increasing array of compliance tools, identifying the most rigorous standards, measure to those standards and continuously revise and update the measures and methodology to reflect evolving concerns.
Accreditation Process
The model used for assessment is adapted from the analysis of quality defects and focuses on the effective documentation, implementation, and enforcement and monitoring of a Supplier Company's policies, procedures and practices. Third-party providers must apply for authorization to conduct audits of Supplier Companies on behalf of QCA and employ QCA standardized process tools using the following scale to assess performance:
- Critical - Failure to implement programs and policies results in high-risk observations. Observations that violate US import or manufacturing laws will also be assessed as Critical.
- Major - Failing to capture the output of process and adjust key processes when noncompliance is the result is observed as a Major violation.
- Minor - Issues observed as Minor may be quickly addressed and improved over a short period (less than a month).
Based on the above grading system, each facility submitted by a QCA Applicant for Accreditation will be evaluated for compliance with QCA Standards by a third party. An approved or approved with corrective action assessment in all five areas of compliance is required of a Supplier Company's Headquarters prior to commencing third party audits in the supply base.
Each facility receives an overall assessment based on a numeric score compliance from their compliance scorecards:
- Approved - No observations were made and facility is assessed as meeting QCA Standards resulting in a score of 91-100.
- Approved with corrective action - Third Party findings resulted in a weighted score of 81-90. Supplier has 90 days to complete documented corrective actions.
- Below standard - Third party findings resulted in a weighted score of 71-80. Documented corrective actions must be completed and resubmitted prior to a follow up audit.
- Critical - A facility receiving a weighted score below 70 in a compliance area. Documented corrective actions must be completed and resubmitted prior to a required follow up audit.
Result
Third-party validation is required to achieve the QCA's highest level of accreditation. Training and corrective action feedback are essential characteristics and components of this process. Upon successful completion of the certification process, accreditation and the QCA Seal of Approval will be extended to certified suppliers for an initial two-year period. While accreditation is good for two (2) years, it is validated in the 2nd year through monitoring of additional facilities selected on a random basis.