The project, initially devised in late 2017, was crystalised at a workshop in March 2018 where unanimous member support for initiative was shown.

In spring 2019 the EDANA standard was released for the pilot audit and a cooperation was established with BSI, a global and leading organisation active in the field of standardisation and auditing

The first round of pilot audits took place in the second half of 2019 and the initiative was made public in October of that year when Dominiek Tytgat of Ontex and EDANA’s Director of Scientific and Technical Affairs, Marines Lagemaat presented the project at OUTLOOK.

Regular operational improvements were made to the program throughout 2020, in particular relating to auditor selection, training and qualification. A number of pilots were postponed due to the pandemic.

In 2021 the QAP Working Group (WG) agreed to continue the program, conducting the pilot audits online, following the example of many other auditing bodies.

In May this year the first pilot audit of the second round was held at a nonwoven production site of a leading manufacturer site in Europe.

Further pilots were held in June and July with a 4th one running from the 16th to the 18th of August.

These audits demonstrated the value of the improvements made since launch, boosting the team’s confidence in the process!

The QAP WG anticipated this when publishing a short presentation on the EDANA website that is used by stakeholders to convince suppliers to participate

Following this second round of pilots, a decision to ‘go live’ with the programme will be made by the working group in the autumn.

For further information on the QAP project please contact EDANA’s Director of Scientific and Technical Affairs, Marines Lagemaat Marines.Lagemaat@edana.org