Bureau Veritas LCIE helps Groupe SEB succeed through IECEE CB Scheme
In 1972 Christian Prestat joined Calor, one of Groupe SEB’s companies, where he has held different positions in the area of product manufacturing and development. In 1985, he was in charge of Calor’s certification ironing department. In 1995, he was responsible for regulation, standardization, and certification as well as Calor’s supervised manufacturer’s testing (SMT) laboratory. In 2000, Prestat’s responsibilities were extended to the totality of Groupe SEB’s activities within the Quality, Standardization and Environment Department, which also relies on a network of experts.
As coordinator of certification and standardization activities, Prestat works with French authorities that participate in IECEE’s Committee of Testing Laboratories’ activities. He also interacts with the Union Technique de l’Electricité et de la Communication (UTE), Groupement Interprofessionel des fabricants d’appareils d’équipement ménager (GIFAM) and the European Committee of Domestic Equipment Manufacturers (CECED). Other Groupe SEB’s experts are responsible for the follow-up of activities in other bodies, such as the IEC’s International Special Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR).
Over a 30-year period Groupe SEB has grown from being a regional French company to a world leader in small domestic appliances. Today, the company employs 14 500 people in 49 countries and is present in over 120 countries. More than 70% of its sales are generated abroad, which in 2004 totalled about EUR 2.3B (about USD 2.75B). The group’s long-term strategy is also supported from a stable shareholding base.
Prestat says Groupe SEB’s products and geographical leadership is also based on a portfolio of six international prestigious and well-known brands. The group focuses on everyday life products such as:
Non stick cookware: frying pans, sauce pans, stewpots and non-stick cake pans, pressure cookers, etc.
Electrical cooking: toasters, fryers, steam cookers, barbecues, waffle makers, moveable ovens, informal meal appliances, raclette-grills, pierrade and fondue sets, etc.
Food preparation and beverage: food processors, mixers, blenders, filter coffee makers and expresso machines, kettles, etc.
Linen care, personal care and home comfort: steam irons, steam generators, electronic scales, dryers, hair removers, baby care appliances, moveable heaters, etc.
The company’s competitors vary depending on the different activities of the group. They include Philips, Babyliss, Delonghi, Fagor, Electrolux, Bosch, Siemens, Braun, Black and Decker, Saeco and Sitram, among others.
Direct to market
Prestat says that his company has been using IEC standards and the IECEE CB Scheme for all its products and that this helps to ensure the international part of its business. In addition to the CB certificates obtained directly by the manufacturers with which they work, currently, they use about 250 new CB certificates per year.
“All products developed and produced by our group or that come from carefully selected manufacturers have a CB certificate and associate test report,” Prestat says. “The IECEE CB Scheme enables us to market our products directly in some countries and to get mandatory national certifications via mutual recognition agreements.”
When asked about drawbacks to using the IECEE system, he says “I do not see any inconvenience regarding the use of the CB Scheme. We conduct some of our business in the European Union, so we must satisfy all European Directives that regulate the marketing of our products. As there are still some remaining European differences, we must test all products according to IEC and European EN standards.”
In the long run, Prestat says that ways to improve the IECEE’s offer to industry would be:
A better full recognition of the CB Scheme;
An increase in the number of member countries; and
The elimination of national differences regarding IEC standards and a more complete harmonization between EN and IEC standards.
Participation
Through the IEC French National Committee, Prestat participates in developing safety standards. This makes it possible to, for example, protect Groupe SEB’s interests as much as possible, suggest proposals for ensuring products’ safety and to integrate interpretations received via TC61 (Safety of household and similar electrical appliances), the Operational Staff Meeting and the IECEE’s Committee of Testing Laboratories.
However, he says, “modifications should not be made simply for the sake of making them. Projects should promote innovation and improve products’ quality and performance, as well as ergonomics for users. Observing such guidelines should enable the correct use of products by developers, testing laboratories and national monitoring organizations.”
Whenever necessary, Prestat also helps to prepare French documents intended for IECEE meetings and says that greater by manufacturers would be most welcome,
Recently, the IECEE introduced a new dimension to its offer, called Manufacturer’s Testing Laboratory Programme. Groupe SEB has a laboratory directly tied to the Head Office that is independent from its development and production sites. This laboratory has a third-party accreditation from COFRAC (Comité Française d’Accreditation) and is recognized as a client tests data program for UL standards in the United States. “For more than 20 years,” Prestat says, “our laboratory has been using Supervised Manufacturer Testing (SMT) under the CB Scheme procedure. In the future, we would like to see it evolve towards a similar system that nevertheless is more flexible in comparison to new rules established by IECEE.
Groupe SEB operates under a partnership contract with the Laboratoire Central des Industries Electriques (LCIE, a Bureau Veritas Company), which was signed after consulting eight European laboratories on the basis of four main criteria: quality performance, services to clients, costs and deadlines.
Better integration
Offering advice on how to make things more effective and efficient for his company, Prestat observes that CB deadlines for getting national mandatory conformity marks or commercial agreements could be reduced. “SMT and Recognized Manufacturer Testing laboratories could be better integrated in meetings where standards’ interpretation or testing methodologies are discussed. In addition, it would be useful for the CB Bulletin to offer more regular information updates while technical report forms could be made available either immediately after the publication of new standards or amendments.”
Regarding the cost to Groupe SEB if the IECEE disappeared, Prestat says: “For me and for an international group like ours, it is no longer possible to go back. This would lead to such costs that it is not even possible to imagine in today’s difficult context. IECEE cannot disappear but must continue to evolve towards a system that is simpler, more efficient and recognized even more by all.”
Groupe SEB
Present in over 120 different countries, Groupe SEB is one of the world's leaders in the manufacture of small household appliances, and sells six products every second somewhere in the world. In the highly competitive household iron market, Groupe SEB ranks number one. Eight million irons and steam generators are assembled annually at the Pont-Evêque French site.
Information from IECEE website
More information is available on their web site at: www.seb.com
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