Certifying your product

To support you in achieving MCS certification for your product, we’ve outlined the key steps below – including how you will work closely with your chosen Certification Body during the process.

Understand the requirements

The first step towards achieving MCS certification for your product is to familiarise yourself with the core requirements, as set out in the MCS Standards. You will need to look at the specific standard for the technology that is relevant to your product, alongside two more general standards that apply to all technology types. These are:

MCS 010 (Generic Factory Production Control and Product Quality Requirements)
MCS 010 outlines requirements for you to ensure that your production environment and processes meet MCS requirements. This includes ensuring you have the staff, processes and systems in place to ensure your product is consistently manufactured to the same high standard. Maintaining certification for a product is based on periodic audits of your factory production control, and further product testing where required.

MCS 011 (Acceptance Criteria for Testing Required for Product Certification).
This is the acceptance criteria that Certification Bodies apply to the product testing evidence that you provide. It is your responsibility to ensure your testing evidence complies with this.

Technology-specific standards
This outlines the specific testing and performance criteria for the product.

Search our product standards.

MCS product standards are written and maintained through the MCS Technical Working Groups to make sure they are relevant, rigorous, technically accurate and implemented in response to changes in market conditions and technological advancements.

Assessment

The assessment stage will consist of a product audit to review the relevant technical documentation and a factory audit to assess your quality control system.
The product audit will consist of:

• A review of technical data files.
• A review of end of line tests in line with your quality plan.
• A review of product testing evidence.

As part of the factory audit, your Certification Body will visit the factory where you manufacture the product and undertake checks to confirm that the product being manufactured is the same as the product tested. You will be assessed against the requirements outlined in MCS 010 – Generic Factory Production Control and Product Quality Requirements.

Following the assessment stage, you will be given the opportunity by your Certification Body to close any non-conformities identified. A non-conformity is when a product is found to not meet MCS standards.

You will need to address any non-conformities and return details of proposed corrective actions to your Certification Body within 45 days of the factory audit.

Achieving product certification

If successful, your Certification Body will award you a certificate for your product, confirming compliance with MCS Standards and verification of your factory production control and technical documentation.

Your product will then be added to the MCS product database by your Certification Body and will appear in the product directory on the MCS website, to be showcased to installers and other users. This is subject to ongoing compliance with MCS standards, as well as satisfactory factory production control audits and product audits (where necessary).