Imagine that you are a product designer, manufacturer or exporter. Among the numerous EHS standards around the world, how would you know which ones your products should comply with? Just as products are divided into categories, product standards are also grouped according to their nature and applications. Knowing how products are categorized will make life much easier, particularly when you need to identify the relevant standards.
Depending on the intention and area of application, the approaches to categorizing products may differ. For example, the product groupings for safety standards are different from those for product environmental compliance. This section gives you an overall idea by presenting some examples of product categorization, and ends with some remarks on the types of product this course will focus on.
Before continuing, let's see what 'product' means. According to ISO 9000, which is a series of standards for quality management and quality assurance, a 'product' is defined as 'the result of activities or processes'. A product can be tangible or intangible, or a combination of both.
The following are the four generic product categories listed in ISO 9000:
- services
- software
- hardware
- processed materials.
Some products may combine several categories. For example, a car combines hardware, software, and processed materials. Whether a combined product belongs to a category depends on the dominant element.
The ISO 9000 series only applies to quality management systems (QMS), and does not actually apply to the products themselves.
The RoHS directive, which has been adopted by the European Union (EU), suggests another approach to categorizing products. This directive is about the restriction on the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. As you can see in Table 1.1, the directive identifies 11 categories, some of which are exempted from compliance.
|
Category |
Description |
|---|---|
|
1 |
Large household appliances: refrigerators, washers, stoves, air conditioners |
|
2 |
Small household appliances: vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, coffee makers, irons |
|
3 |
IT and communications equipment: computers, printers, copiers, phones |
|
4 |
Consumer equipment: TVs, DVD players, stereos, video cameras |
|
5 |
Lighting: lamps, lighting fixtures, light bulbs |
|
6 |
Electrical and electronic tools: drills, saws, nail guns, sprayers, lathes, trimmers, blowers |
|
7 |
Toys, leisure and sports equipment: video games, electric trains, treadmills |
|
8 |
Medical devices and equipment |
|
9 |
Control and monitoring equipment |
|
10 |
Automatic dispensers: vending machines, ATM machines |
|
11 |
Other electrical and electronic products not covered by any other categories |
We can also look at how products with CE Markings are grouped. The CE Marking is the manufacturer's self-declaration symbol on the product that indicates the product's conformity with the health and safety requirements of the relevant European directives. If you look at the titles and nature of these directives, you will find that products are generally divided into 20 groups, as listed in Table 1.2.
|
Appliances burning gaseous fuels |
Medical devices |
|---|---|
|
Cableway installations to carry persons |
Active implantable medical devices |
|
Low voltage equipment |
In vitro diagnostic medical devices |
|
Construction products |
Non-automatic weighing instruments |
|
Equipment and protective systems for use in potentially explosive atmospheres |
Radio equipment and telecommunications terminal equipment |
|
Explosives for civil uses |
Personal protective equipment |
|
Hot water boilers |
Simple pressure vessels |
|
Lift |
Pressure equipment |
|
Machinery |
Recreational craft |
|
Measuring instruments |
Toys |
It is also possible to group products from an environmental perspective. For example, in the EU's Ecodesign Directive, which provides a framework for improving the environmental performance of energy related products (ERP) through ecodesign, the initial working plan suggests a list of 10 product groups which were considered to be a priority for implementation in 2009 to 2011. The groups are listed in Table 1.3.
|
Air-conditioning and ventilation systems |
|
Electric and fossil-fuelled heating equipment |
|
Food-preparing equipment |
|
Industrial and laboratory furnaces and ovens |
|
Machine tools |
|
Network, data processing and data storing equipment |
|
Refrigerating and freezing equipment |
|
Sound and imaging equipment |
|
Transformers |
|
Water-using equipment |
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