Newsletter

CECIP Newsletter Q2 2020

Nick Parsons elected as new CECIP President

At the 70th CECIP General Assembly on 5 June Nick Parsons was elected. as new CECIP President. Nick is currently Deputy Chief Sales Officer at Minebea Intec and has extensive experience within the industry. Additionally he was an active member of the UK and Irish weighing federation and SMA in the US. All this made him an excellent candidate for this position.

The election of Nick Parsons means Urs Widmer will step back as CECIP President, a position he held during the last six years. In his last General Assembly as CECIP President Urs Widmer thanked the CECIP members for their support and was glad to leave CECIP in good hands. “It was a great pleasure to be the CECIP President over the last years. I believe we represented the European weighing industry well due to the great support from all CECIP members in the different working groups. I’m confident Nick will be an outstanding CECIP President leading CECIP in a new decade.”

The handover took place during an online meeting and Nick Parsons’ new role is effective immediately. In his speech Nick Parsons mentioned that he was glad Urs Widmer left him CECIP in the position it is currently in. “First of all, I would like to thank Urs for his passion and commitment to CECIP over the last six years. Thanks to his leadership, the activities of CECIP were brought to the next level. I hope to continue the great work started by Urs during my term, including CECIP’s vision for the European Weighing industry by 2030 and our relationships with the various authorities. I am looking forward to the continued cooperation with the CECIP members, the authorities and our international co-operation partners.”

Read the full press release on the new CECIP President here.

CECIP webinar on digitalisation in legal metrology

Digitalisation is one of the key developments in the European weighing industry. It brings new opportunities that can benefit users and society in various ways. However, it also comes with certain challenges. For example, it is critical that the right legal framework allows for innovation in the area of digitalisation. New digital solutions will be developed that were not considered when establishing the rules. This raises several questions and CECIP believes these deserve a thorough discussion. To discuss these questions and other related issues, CECIP organised a webinar on ‘digitalisation in legal metrology’ on Thursday 25 June. Speakers were:

• Roman Schwartz, CIML President
• Florian Thiel, PTB & WELMEC WG7 convener
• Nick Parsons, Deputy CSO Minebea Intec & CECIP President
• Karlheinz Bahnolzer, Head Legal Metrology Sartorius & CECIP LMG President

The discussion resulted in some interesting insights and food for thought. To make the webinar available for all interested stakeholders, you can find a recording via this website. Moreover you can download the presentations here.

CECIP calls for futureproof legal framework that allows for innovation in area of digitalisation

The digitalisation of European society and the economy has significant benefits. It can make processes more efficient, improve customers experience and create new business opportunities. However, to ensure the weighing industry can be the digitalisation enablers and contribute to the European data economy, it is crucial that the right legal framework is established and implemented. EU legislation, OIML Recommendations and WELMEC guides should be flexible enough to allow innovation when implementing legislation whilst maintaining a high level of  consumer protection. To reap the full benefits of digitalisation in the European weighing industry CECIP is convinced at least two steps need to be taken.

1. Focus on legal metrology requirements for the core weighing instrument

With the increasing role of digitalisation in society, weighing instruments may be very different from historical, conventional machines consisting of a complete physical unit that could be easily isolated and sealed. With an instrument constructed over such a distributed architecture it may be difficult to define the boundaries of an instrument. There is a risk that requirements based on one use case may be completely inappropriate for other applications. On top of that, regulations and standards change very slowly compared to the rapid developments in technology. To ensure that these regulations and standards do not stifle innovation they must be sufficiently flexible whilst at the same time ensuring the confidence of all stakeholders.

2. Essential requirements leading when controlling weighing instruments

The general concept of the European Commission´s New Legislative Framework is to set essential requirements in legislation followed by harmonised standards that allow for the presumption of conformity.  Even though the legal system allows for flexibility for manufacturers to diverge from the recommended requirements in the harmonised standards and guides, in practice manufacturers are given little freedom. CECIP calls on the market surveillance authorities and notified bodies to follow the principles of the legislation and providing enough flexibility.

You can find the full position paper on digitalisation in legal here. 

Contribution CECIP to Artificial Intelligence consultation

The European Commission published earlier this year its white paper on Artificial Intelligence (AI) where they described their plans regarding legislation and initiatives to support the development of AI solutions in Europe. Particularly in the field of industrial AI it is expected that Europe can take a leading role. To gather the opinions from the public and stakeholders they launched its public consultation where CECIP contributed.

In short, in its contribution CECIP indicates that it believes AI will be an important factor in the future and that support is needed in several areas such as improving skills and investing in research and development. It is mentioned that it is important SME’s are also part of AI development. Additionally, CECIP’s contribution indicates that the current technical legislation is sufficient for the majority of cases and only minor changes to the legal framework are needed.