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2025.02.26
Accreditation – an invisible but crucial quality guarantee
Every day, decisions are made that affect people's safety. The basis for making these decisions is accreditation of the company in which independent experts ensure that products and services meet the required quality requirements. Everything from amusement rides, food, batteries to medical equipment is tested, certified and inspected with the aim of ensuring safety in society as far as the regulations allow.
– Accreditation is a globally recognized and well-functioning system that ensures that those who carry out control, inspection or certification meet the requirements for independence, competence, routines and processes. It is a cornerstone for the quality system to function, says Jörgen Backersgård, Chairman of Swetic. When a third party reviews, for example, a quality system, the effect and credibility of the system is increased. It becomes a positive spiral that benefits the company concerned and their customers.
But the industry is facing new challenges. Previously, accreditation was mainly about clear technical requirements, but as new areas such as sustainability, green claims and energy efficiency are applied, the assessments that need to be carried out are becoming more complex. Here Swetic plays an important role in ensuring that the accreditation system evolves without losing its fundamental function.
– We also need to make sure not to challenge what works well. We need to be involved in influencing the quality infrastructure more than we do today and create new market areas where accreditation creates benefit, says Jörgen.
Swetic's way forward
For almost 30 years, Swetic has been an important voice for the industry's technical development and independent controls, and thus the trust and benefit that we create. But to meet the challenges of the future, a greater impact in political and regulatory contexts is required.
“We need to become a natural dialogue partner with authorities and regulators,” says Jörgen. “We need to be experts in investigations, working on strategic issues such as how EU directives should be applied.”.
Therefore, an important part of our strategy is to strengthen Swetic's role in technical committees and investigations, as well as to create a clearer presence at the ministry level. The goal is for member companies to experience even greater value from Swetic's work.
– It is important that our members feel that they benefit from being part of Swetic. We work to preserve the quality infrastructure where it is useful and establish it in new areas, for the benefit of the entire industry, but above all for safety and security, concludes Jörgen.
