U.S. CPSC and Health Canada – DRAFT 'Guidance on the Application of Human Factors to Consumer Products'

Vol. 1017 | 29 Mar 2018

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Health Canada have both published the draft “Guidance on the Application of Human Factors to Consumer Products” for public comment.

The draft guidance document was co-developed by CPSC and Health Canada staff to provide guidance to manufacturers on the use of human factors during various facets of product design, development and production. The incentive of providing this guidance is that products that are designed well, taking intended and foreseeable use in to consideration, will have larger user acceptance and lead to fewer incidents, reducing cost of compliance and enforcement.

The document discusses benefits of employing human factors during the product design process, which is divided in to following six stages:

1. Product planning
2. Idea and concept generation
3. Design and development
4. Testing and validation
5. Production
6. Post-production evaluation

The guidance further elaborates on activities a proactive manufacturer can engage at each stage of product design.

Public comment deadline for both CPSC and Health Canada notice is May 14, 2018.

CPSC Notice: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2018-03-15/pdf/2018-05208.pdf

For questions, please contact Dr. Pratik Ichhaporia (pratik.ichhaporia@intertek.com, +1-312-906-7720) or Laxmi Ravikumar (laxmi.ravikumar@intertek.com, +1-630-209-9265).