STMC: We can Make You Look Good

Originally published at Imaging World Magazine Issue 99

By Katie Bandle

Ten years ago, I was busy managing a bar in and keeping my customers happy. I’m 5’2” tall, and I worked the late nights shifts at a popular brewery in Las Vegas, so I learned some creative ways to deal with conflict resolution and customer satisfaction. Based on that experience, my friends Tricia Judge and Lester Cornelius hired me to administer the industry’s STMC program.

STMC is like a fine wine, it is getting better with age, and more popular.  But there are a lot of misunderstandings about what it is and what makes it great. And there are a lot of people that abuse it.

The STMC stands for the Standardized Test Methods Committee. STMC was started when institutional and government buyers of cartridges sought ways to buy cartridges on a basis other than price. Started by Cornelius and the late Dr. John Wyhof, the committee was comprised of several dozen technical experts who volunteered their expertise. They were charged with finding test methods that it could adopt for universal use by cartridge manufacturers and remanufacturers alike to prove the quality and performance of a cartridge.

The STMC reviewed and accepted several ASTM International test methods, and also employed ISO, ISTA, and ANSI test methods. They incorporated these methods into a guide that, when followed, make it possible to evaluate a cartridge. Standardized tests do not specify how a cartridge must perform; they only measure how it does perform. But by standardizing the guide, all cartridges can now be tested and measured for their page yield, image density and background.

The committee members come from the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany. Such a global reach presence allows for continual review of new standards as they are presented to the public anywhere in the world.

A company becomes STMC-certified when its employees successfully complete a training program given by a STMC trainer authorized to teach these test methods. A company must purchase the correct testing equipment and agree to use STMC test methods in its manufacturing operation. (A list of equipment, the guide and the trainers can all be found at www.i-itc.org)

The industry owes these trainers and their companies a debt of gratitude. They volunteer their time to train other companies, and this is done without regard for creating potential competition for their own businesses. They are not paid, but they can be reimbursed for expenses. I work with some of them more often than others, and they are the unsung heroes of our industry. They help aftermarket cartridges compete with new ones, and often help the companies they are training improve in many areas of production.

After being trained, the company must undertake testing on its own and submit a test report to its trainer.  If the trainer is satisfied, then the report is forwarded to an auditor who verifies the trainer’s findings. After the company has paid for its certification, it can claim to be certified.

STMC certification, once achieved, is clearly valuable. Renewal rates for STMC are above 97 percent of those companies still in business. Certified companies recognize the program’s value as both a marketing program that allows them to sell on quality rather than price. STMC testing also helps the company internally determine which combination of components works best and most cost-effectively.

There are state (and soon, federal) contracts that will only be awarded to STMC-certified companies. There are also private contracts that will only be awarded to STMC-certified companies.

The Int’l ITC maintains a list of STMC-certified companies. Purchasers routinely monitor the list and verify that those bidding on their contracts claiming to be STMC certified are indeed STMC certified.

This has led to some interesting communications with companies claiming to be STMC certified that are not.  And then there are also the folks that bid first, thinking certification can just be bought.

Therefore, for those interested in becoming STMC certified, I recommend planning ahead. I am happy to help you with the STMC certification or renewal process. I prefer using my customer service skills to my conflict resolution ones.