The notion of Certification Matrix is quite recent. In the field of certification, it appeared during the work of the conformity assessment for large industrial projects, in particular in the field of oil & gas under the EPC contracts.
The certification matrix is presented as a table (see example below) where the first column (vertical) contains the list of equipment with their project tag and their customs nomenclature code and the first line (horizontal) contains the name of the Technical Regulations and the references of other standards and requirements potentially applicable to industrial equipment.
Finally, the completed certification matrix allows, in a synthetic way, to present the correlation between the exported equipment and the certificates / other mandatory requirements to be provided within the industrial project.
In order to fill in the certification matrix the following is necessary: preliminary study carried out by specialists on the technical description and the field of use of the equipment.
This is a complex process that requires special knowledge that is why in most cases the seller addresses to a third party – a company specializing in the certification in the Eurasian zone often called VCB (Vendor Certification Body).
Each vendor, together with its VCB (Vendor Certification Body), completes the matrix and presents it to the engineering company for validation. After validation, vendors must complete all conformity assessment procedures in order to obtain the compliance documents specified in the certification matrix. Thus, the vendors meet the technical requirements of the engineering companies.
