Introduction

The cecQAF (CEC Query and Assessment Form) is central to the CEC Certification Process.

After signing the NDA, the cecQAF is used progressively throughout the CEC Certification Process of a Vendor's sustainable product, throughout the different phases of the CEC Certification Process:

The instructions described subsequently are grouped firstly by the Phase and then by the worksheet the Vendor has to complete.

General Guidance

The worksheets requiring the Vendor to enter data prior to ordering CEC Services have light blue tabs.

The worksheets requiring the Vendor to enter data prior to the CEC Assessment have dark blue tabs.

The Vendor can only enter information into the light blue or white fields of the various worksheets, not into the medium or dark blue fields in the vendor sections, nor into the "not blue" sections.

Some areas are greyed out until the Vendor enters information elsewhere. For example the fields in the Recycling worksheet are grey until the Vendor has defined that they request a certificate for the corresponding Product and Site combination; only then the corresponding fields show a light blue background.

Ordering CEC Services

Overview

To request CEC Certification Services, the Vendor must enter information into the following worksheets in the cecQAF:

• Coversheet
• Components
• Products
• Sites
• Certificates

Once the Vendor entered the required information into the Worksheets, the Vendor must:

• save the cecQAF to their computer,
• name it according to the cecQAF Naming Convention,
• and send it to contact@cecocert.com

This will initiate the CEC Quotation, Invoicing, and Payment Process.

Some instructions are also given in Section 1b of the Coversheet of the cecQAF.

Below is the description what to enter into each worksheet in the cecQAF:

Coversheet

The Vendor must enter the following information into Section 1a of the Coversheet worksheet:

• Registered Company Name (must match the registered company name)
• CEC Primary Contact information (must match the registered primary contact)
• Commercial Contact information (the person handling the communication related to commercial questions, for example manages the quotation)
• Technical Contact information (the person handling the communication related to the technical questions)
• Functional Unit (from the pull down menu), email contact@cecocert.com if you have a product that is not available in the pull down menu

The section Units is optional at this stage.

The section Count of Items is automatically populated from the data the Vendor enters into the other worksheets.

Components worksheet

Enter information for each component that is part of a product the Vendor intends to receive a CEC Certificate for.

The minimum information at the Ordering CEC Services stage is:

• Function
• Nominal Material
• Supplier
• If you receive the same Nominal Material in different thicknesses from the same supplier, please complete one row for each thickness, and also complete the Thickness column for these materials.

The information itself can be corrected before the CEC Assessment, but the number of components must be correct. Additional components incur additional cost.

The other information is optional at this stage, but will have to be entered before the CEC Assessment can take place.

Products worksheet

For each Product the Vendor intends to receive a CEC Certificate for, enter:

• the Name of the Product, this is the name your company assigns to the product, for example the commercial name your company intends to market the product under. The name may be corrected prior to the CEC Assessment; the purpose is to inform CEC about the number of Products and Variants, and have an initial name to identify the product.
• Select the components each Product consists of, using the pull-down menu in each cell. This may be corrected prior to the CEC Assessment.
• If you have multiple card constructions to make one product, for example you use overlay from different suppliers when making a card, then define your primary construction (the one sold in the highest volume, or the one initially qualified) as the Product in column C, and the variants in columns D to H. Note that you will just receive one CEC Certificate for a product including its Variants, reflecting the worst case. If you want separate certificates, then define the different constructions (for example card with overlays from different suppliers) as individual Products and not as Variants of one Product.

Sites worksheet

For each Site the Vendor intends to receive a CEC Certificate for, enter the requested data, including a name for each site.

Certificates worksheet

The Products and Sites you defined following the instructions above will show up in the Certificates worksheet.

CEC Certificates are issued for a specific Product produced in a specific Site.

For each combination of Product and Site you request a renewed CEC Certificate for, enter the Claim Number (like "clm1234") from the current CEC Certificate into the cell in the column corresponding to the Site and the row corresponding to the Product. If the CEC Certificate is already expired, then add "(exp)" (without the quotes) behind the Claim Number.

For each combination of Product and Site you request a new CEC Certificate for, enter the word "New" (without the quotes) into the cell in the column corresponding to the Site, and the row corresponding to the Product. You need to request a new CEC Certificate if the combination of Product and Site had not previously been CEC Certified.

Every CEC Certificate requested as a result from this process must be correctly specified at this point in time. Additional Certificates will require completing a new cecQAF once this one has been processed.