Dr. –Ing. Manfred Bayerlein, CEO of TÜV Rheinland toured North American facilities and concluded his first North American tour with a “Local Dialogue” event, held in Boston. Employees from the Boston and Boxborough, MA offices, as well as employees from Newtown, CT were invited to participate in the event.
Dr. Bayerlein shared his vision for the company over the next few years and outlined three key areas for TÜV Rheinland’s success:
- Strength in technical competence
- A strong and capable team
- Growth opportunities in North America
TÜV Rheinland employees located around the country were invited to participate via a live webcast.
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Dr. Bayerlein was joined by new North American Chief Regional Offer (CRO) Gerhard Luebken and Chief International Officer (CIO) Stephan Schmitt. All three answered questions from the employee participants and offered their goals and thoughts on the company.
CRO Gerhard Luebken explained that huge potential exists particularly in infrastructure with railway transportation, power plants, and non-destructive testing, as well as in the oil and gas sector. Stephan Schmitt added that the service industry and the field of mobility also offer great growth opportunity.
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After the event TÜV Rheinland hosted a casual reception where employees had the opportunity to spend some one-on-one time speaking with Dr Bayerlein, Mr Schmitt and Mr. Luebken. Employees really seemed to enjoy meeting Dr. Bayerlein, who sighted Jack Welsh as one of the people he most admires in the business world.
This was Dr. Bayerlein’s first visit to TUV Rheinland of North America, as well as one of the first opportunities for new CRO Gerhard Luebken to address the company as a whole.
Manufacturers of toys and children’s products all over the world are challenged to meet safety and regulatory requirements while also addressing consumer demands and maintaining brand integrity in a dynamic environment.
A growing awareness of the potential toxicity of chemicals, ingredients and of the environmental impact of packaging has driven many countries to implement regulations and standards to control the safety and quality of toys and children’s products.
“The Toy Book” ran a story recently about the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection having prevented more than a half million potentially dangerous imported products from reaching consumers from October 1 – December 31, 2011. On top of the list of stopped merchandise were “children’s products containing levels of lead exceeding the federal limits, toys and other articles with small parts that present a choking hazard, and toys and child care articles with banned phthalates.”
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TÜV Rheinland’s global network of laboratories including our U.S. lab in Bentonville, Ark., adhere to the CPSC’s guidelines in testing toys and other consumer merchandise to ensure that they are safe to go on the store shelves. The new and sophisticated HDXRF technology precisely calculates the toxic elements such as lead in the paint – quickly and without destroying the product.
If you are attending the Licensing International Expo, make sure to stop at booth 5083. You can see live demonstrations showing how TÜV Rheinland can quickly and cost effectively screen products for lead and other toxic chemicals and elements. Click here to schedule a time to meet one of our experts at the show.
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Questions? Email us at TCPTesting@us.tuv.com.
Many manufacturers in the aerospace industry are finding themselves scrambling to complete their upgrade to AS9100 Revision C (Quality Management Systems Requirements for Aviation, Space, and Defense Organizations). Completing the transition as soon as possible is important because any company that fails to upgrade by the July 1, 2012 deadline will find themselves with a suspended certificate. This can result in lost revenue and unhappy customers.
While there is certainly some confusion around the latest revision, companies should not let that delay the transition of the certification or recertifications. In fact, waiting could result in much higher costs and customer perception of product quality.
In general, AS9100 Revision C seeks to increase the emphasis on product and process improvement. This includes: project management, risk management and other important aspects of aviation and defense/space. Revision C helps ensure that AS9100 is a better fit for all organizations, regardless of company size, and places an increased focus on timely and quality deliveries.
TUV Rheinland has put together a few helpful tips to help make a smooth transition to AS9100C:
- Identify the requirements of AS9100C. For more information, visit: http://standards.sae.org/as9100c/
- Perform a Gap analysis to determine how Revision C applies to your business
- Establish quality objectives
- Compile and prioritize requirements
- Publish the requirements as a quality policy, with guidelines on implementation
- Ensure the quality policy is communicated throughout the entire company
- Perform internal audits to ensure the policies have been adopted and are performing as expected.
- Schedule an external audit by a third-party accredited certification body
It’s important to note you must choose an organization that is fully accredited to audit against the 2009 series of AS9100 standards: AS9110, AS9120 and AS9100. Registrars are required to be re-approved by the accreditation bodies in order to be authorized to perform these audits, and must use auditors who have been through Aerospace Auditor Transition Training (referred to as the AATT), officially sanctioned by the IAQG.
Lisa Greenleaf authored an informative article on Revision C Audits, featured in Aersopace Manufacturing and Design. To read the article, click here.
If you would like any additional information, please visit our AS9100 Revision C resource page.
We are very excited to launch our new blog. Our intent is to provide educational information on industry-related topics and trends, and to update you with TUV Rheinland-related activities. From time-to-time we will also invite guest bloggers and interview industry thought leaders. We encourage participation and discussion from our customers and blog followers.
A Few Things to Know about TUV Rheinland in 2012!
A big thank you! First off, everyone here at TUV Rheinland would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers for your continued business – we don’t take you for granted. We understand it’s a privilege to be your preferred provider for product safety testing and certification services, and we look forward to continued success.
The next order of business is let you all know about some very important things happening within our organization.
| We are celebrating 140 years! Did you know TUV Rheinland has been around since 1872? We got our start inspecting steam boilers in the districts of Elberfield and Barmen, Germany. |
| Over time, this organization became what is globally known today as TÜV Rheinland. Headquartered in Cologne, Germany, TÜV Rheinland is the oldest testing |
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| and certification company in the world. We are all excited to be celebrating the company’s 140 year anniversary! There will be much celebration, so be sure to check our future blogs and website promotions. |
Welcome to our new President and CEO! We are happy to introduce Mr. Gerhard Luebken as the new President and CEO of TUV Rheinland North America Holding and TUV Rheinland of North America, Inc. Gerhard has been with TUV Rheinland since 1990 and has an extensive technical background in product safety and engineering. Mr Luebken joins us from our Asia Pacific office, where he was previously Vice President, Greater China Region.
Follow us on social media sites! We’ve finally joined the social media scene. We know you’ll be bookmarking our blog, but we’ll also be routinely updating Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube with all of our news, activities and events - don’t forget to follow us!
2011 was a year of openings! We obtained our OSHA accreditation for Solar Panels, expanded our service scope in Mexico, and opened many new locations, including: a new office in Decatur, AL for Industrial Services, a Metallurgy Lab in Omaha, NE supporting Rail activities, and a Softlines Lab in Bentonville, AR for Toys & Textile testing. We can also now offer ASME-based inspections in Houston, Texas and will be expanding globally with our ASME based services.
Here’s to a very prosperous, successful and healthy 2012. Prost! (Cheers!)