Makeover for SATRA Quality Mark

The SATRA Quality Mark logo has been updated and the rules simplified to enable more members to benefit.

by Austin Simmons

The SATRA Quality Mark is used to demonstrate consistent quality and give customers extra confidence in buying SATRA Quality Mark holders’ products. It is a useful aid to marketing when used on swing tags, packaging and promotional materials. It can also be used at the point-of-sale on finished products containing eligible components and materials.

The SATRA Quality Mark has been awarded to many member organisations over the years, and current holders include manufacturers of footwear, safety footwear toecaps, insole boards, thread, tapes, box toes, counters and cushioning materials.

Guaranteed quality

The Quality Mark logo is exclusive to member companies and signifies that the product has been assessed as ‘fit for purpose’. It also indicates that the product is from a manufacturing environment which includes ongoing product conformity assessment through a quality assurance system in addition to a rigorous inspection and testing regime to ensure consistent production at an acceptable level of quality.

The Quality Mark is not exclusive to the very ‘top end’ of footwear or components – it can be applied to any product provided the specification is considered appropriate by SATRA. The logo can be applied to a wide range of components and materials used in footwear, clothing, personal protective equipment (PPE), leathergoods and accessories, as well as to finished products. It is particularly useful to footwear component manufacturers working to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive global market. Once the Quality Mark is awarded, it can be displayed on the product, its packaging and any supporting information.

SATRA Quality Mark regulations

1 Agree with SATRA the performance values for your product. These are simply the required performance levels for each product in the important physical and chemical tests
2 Test the product to ensure that it meets the specification agreed in step 1
3 Demonstrate that production is controlled to a suitable level. This is normally carried out through a visit to your premises to check your procedures and records
4 Produce user information and technical data sheets for the product
5 Agree with SATRA an ongoing testing programme to check that the product consistently meets the specification agreed in step one. If you have your own laboratory, the testing can be carried out in-house
6 Following on from step 5, if your own laboratory is used in order to carry out ongoing testing, it will be checked against the requirements described in the SATRA accreditation scheme.
Subject to all of the above steps being completed, the Quality Mark will be issued.

Then, each year:

• 25 per cent of the Quality Mark product range is selected for testing at SATRA to check the results against the specification
• The operation of the in-house laboratory (if any) is checked
• The results of the ongoing tests on the products are checked to make sure that they comply with the specification or, where this is not the case, that suitable corrective action has been taken
• The production control records are checked and logged by SATRA.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 34 of the July/August 2012 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

Other articles from this issue »

---