Why we publish our methods

Every report we issue includes the full conditions: temperatures, humidities, dwell times, sample counts, the machine, the operator, and what we discarded and why. It makes the reports longer and it occasionally makes us look worse.

We do it because a packaging test result without its conditions is not evidence. It is a number with a logo on it.

What the conditions changeiii

A compression figure at 50% relative humidity and the same figure at 85% can differ by a third. A seal strength measured an hour after sealing and the same seal measured after four weeks are different numbers. Neither pair is wrong. Quoting one without the condition is.

We have been sent competitor reports where the headline figure was fine and the conditioning was chosen to produce it. Usually not dishonestly — just a standard protocol applied to a product it did not suit, then reported as though the protocol were the point.

The part that costs us

Published conditions mean a client can take our report to another consultancy and have it checked, or repeat the work without us. Both have happened. One client repeated a transit study in-house the following year, which is a project we did not get.

That is the correct outcome. We are paid for judgement, and judgement that only holds while nobody can check it is not judgement.

What to ask for

If a report gives you a number without the conditions that produced it, ask for them. A lab that will not supply them is telling you the number does not survive the question.