You are guaranteed to have seen it. The colourful square attached to the scales in your grocery store or the pumps at your petrol station. The RISE sticker guarantees that you get what you pay for, whether that be petrol or Swedish apples.
This label began life as a consumer protection measure. If an instrument such as a scale is the basis for the price of a consumer product, the law states that the scale must be approved and regularly inspected.
The industry also benefits
Nowadays, it is considered equally important for retailers that they do not overdeliver to customers.
“Incorrect scales are a source of shrinkage for retailers,” explains Camilla Grönkvist of Coop Väst.
RISE pays regular visits to Coop stores to inspect and approve, or ‘crown’ in industry parlance, supermarket scales. As these inspections involved the exchange of a number of emails and a good deal of administration, RISE, Coop Väst and Coop’s central quality function began a collaboration to refine the system.
“We explained our desire to reduce the number of emails involved, as this would make our lives that much easier.
Together with RISE, we developed a solution that benefited both RISE and our stores.
Too much administration is a burden on both parties, the process should flow.”
The result was Customer Website Verification. Coop and their stores receive a login for the RISE system so that they can follow the inspection of their scales in real time. This reduces the paperwork and delays in finding out inspection results, and Camilla Grönkvist is pleased with the results.
“This is what certification is all about; having control of our business.”
Available throughout Sweden
Inspecting measurement instruments is an open market; anyone with accreditation can be an inspector. The lineage of RISE inspections can be traced back to the seventeenth century and the Royal Mint. Today, RISE is the market leader with 19 district offices throughout Sweden.
“If there’s a scale or fuel meter that needs inspecting, from Luleå in the north to Smygehuk in the south to Gotland, we will deal with it. We have staff throughout Sweden,” explains Eddie Hasth, head of RISE’s Calibration and Verification Unit, with pride in his voice.
The challenge for the future is to keep up with developments in fossil-free fuels. Irrespective of whether we find ourselves refuelling with hydrogen, compressed natural gas or something we do not yet have a name for, RISE will be required to drive the technological development of new measurement instruments.
“The next few years will see major developments and we must remain at the forefront in order to ensure that consumers are protected and the industry has the right payment systems. The goal is to continue to benefit the customer.”