Standardization

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about technical standards. For scaling in statistics, see Standardizing. For
other uses, see Standard (disambiguation).
Standardization or standardisation is the process of developing and
implementing technical standards. Standardization can help to
maximize compatibility, interoperability,safety, repeatability, or quality. It can also
facilitate commoditization of formerly custom processes.
In social sciences, including economics, the idea of standardization is close to the solution
for a coordination problem, a situation in which all parties can realize mutual gains, but only
by making mutually consistent decisions. Standardization is defined as best technical
application consentual wisdom inclusive of processes for selection in making appropriate
choices for ratification coupled with consistent decisions for maintaining obtained standards.
This view includes the case of "spontaneous standardization processes", to producede facto
standards.

History[edit]
The implementation of standards in industry and commerce became highly important with
the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the need for high-precision machine
tools andinterchangeable parts.

First attempts[edit]

Henry Maudslay's famous early screw-cutting lathes of circa 1797 and 1800.

Henry Maudslay developed the first industrially practical screw-cutting lathe in 1800. This
allowed for the standardisation of screw threadsizes for the first time and paved the way for
the practical application of interchangeability (an idea that was already taking hold)
to nutsand bolts.[1]
Before this, screw threads were usually made by chipping and filing (that is, with skilled
freehand use of chisels and files). Nuts were rare; metal screws, when made at all, were
usually for use in wood. Metal bolts passing through wood framing to a metal fastening on
the other side were usually fastened in non-threaded ways (such as clinching or upsetting
against a washer). Maudslay standardized the screw threads used in his workshop and
produced sets of taps and dies that would make nuts and bolts consistently to those
standards, so that any bolt of the appropriate size would fit any nut of the same size. This
was a major advance in workshop technology.[2]

National standard[edit]
Maudslay's work, as well as the contributions of other engineers, accomplished a modest
amount of industry standardization; some companies' in-house standards spread a bit within
their industries.

Graphic representation of formulae for the pitches of threads of screw bolts

Joseph Whitworth's screw thread measurements were adopted as the first (unofficial)
national standard by companies around the country in 1841. It came to be known as
the British Standard Whitworth, and was widely adopted in other countries.[3][4]

This new standard specified a 55 thread angle and a thread depth of 0.640327p and a
radius of 0.137329p, where p is the pitch. The thread pitch increased with diameter in steps
specified on a chart. An example of the use of the Whitworth thread is the Royal
Navy's Crimean War gunboats. These were the first instance of "mass-production"
techniques being applied to marine engineering. [1]
With the adoption of BSW by British railway lines, many of which had previously used their
own standard both for threads and for bolt head and nut profiles, and improving
manufacturing techniques, it came to dominate British manufacturing.
American Unified Coarse was originally based on almost the same imperial fractions. The
Unified thread angle is 60 and has flattened crests (Whitworth crests are rounded). Thread
pitch is the same in both systems except that the thread pitch for the 12 in bolt is 12 threads
per inch (tpi) in BSW versus 13 tpi in the UNC.

National standards body[edit]

By the end of the 19th century, differences in standards between companies, was making
trade increasingly difficult and strained. For instance, an iron and steel dealer recorded his
displeasure in The Times: "Architects and engineers generally specify such unnecessarily
diverse types of sectional material or given work that anything like economical and
continuous manufacture becomes impossible. In this country no two professional men are
agreed upon the size and weight of a girder to employ for given work."
The Engineering Standards Committee was established in London in 1901 as the world's
first national standards body.[5][6] It subsequently extended its standardization work and
became the British Engineering Standards Association in 1918, adopting the name British
Standards Institution in 1931 after receiving its Royal Charter in 1929. The national
standards were adopted universally throughout the country, and enabled the markets to act
more rationally and efficiently, with an increased level of cooperation.
After the First World War, similar national bodies were established in other countries.
The Deutsches Institut fr Normung was set up in Germany in 1917, followed by its
counterparts, the American National Standard Institute and the French Commission
Permanente de Standardisation, both in 1918.[1]

International standards[edit]
By the mid to late 19th century, efforts were being made to standardize electrical
measurement. Lord Kelvin was an important figure in this process, introducing accurate

methods and apparatus for measuring electricity. In 1857, he introduced a series of effective
instruments, including the quadrant electrometer, which cover the entire field of electrostatic
measurement. He invented the current balance, also known as the Kelvin
balance or Ampere balance (SiC), for the precise specification of the ampere,
the standard unit ofelectric current.[7]

R. E. B. Crompton drew up the first international standards body, the International Electrotechnical
Commission, in 1906.

Another important figure was R. E. B. Crompton, who became concerned by the large range
of different standards and systems used by electrical engineering companies and scientists
in the early 20th century. Many companies had entered the market in the 1890s and all
chose their own settings for voltage, frequency, current and even the symbols used on circuit
diagrams. Adjacent buildings would have totally incompatible electrical systems simply
because they had been fitted out by different companies. Crompton could see the lack of
efficiency in this system and began to consider proposals for an international standard for
electric engineering.[8]
In 1904, Crompton represented Britain at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint
Louis as part of a delegation by the Institute of Electrical Engineers. He presented a paper
on standardisation, which was so well received that he was asked to look into the formation
of a commission to oversee the process.[9] By 1906 his work was complete and he drew up a
permanent constitution for the first international standards organization, the International
Electrotechnical Commission.[10] The body held its first meeting that year in London, with
representatives from 14 countries. In honour of his contribution to electrical standardisation,
Lord Kelvin was elected as the body's first President. [11]

Memorial plaque of founding ISA inPrague.

The International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations (ISA) was founded in
1926 with a broader remit to enhance international cooperation for all technical standards
and specifications. The body was suspended in 1942 during World War II.
After the war, ISA was approached by the recently formed United Nations Standards
Coordinating Committee (UNSCC) with a proposal to form a new global standards body. In
October 1946, ISA and UNSCC delegates from 25 countries met in London and agreed to
join forces to create the newInternational Organization for Standardization (ISO); the new
organization officially began operations in February 1947.[12]
In general, each country or economy has a single recognized National Standards Body
(NSB). Examples
include ABNT, AENOR, AFNOR, ANSI, BSI, DGN, DIN, IRAM, JISC, KATS,SABS, SAC, SC
C, SIS, SNZ. An NSB is likely the sole member from that economy in ISO.
NSBs may be either public or private sector organizations, or combinations of the two. For
example, the three NSBs of Canada, Mexico and the United States are respectively the
Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the General Bureau of Standards (Direccin General
de Normas, DGN), and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). SCC is a
Canadian Crown Corporation, DGN is a governmental agency within the Mexican Ministry of
Economy, and ANSI and AENOR are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with members from
both the private and public sectors. The determinants of whether an NSB for a particular
economy is a public or private sector body may include the historical and traditional roles
that the private sector fills in public affairs in that economy or the development stage of that
economy.

Usage[edit]
Standards can be:

de facto standards which means they are followed by informal convention or

dominant usage.

de jure standards which are part of legally binding contracts, laws or regulations.

Voluntary standards which are published and available for people to consider for use.

The existence of a published standard does not necessarily imply that it is useful or correct.
Just because an item is stamped with a standard number does not, by itself, indicate that the
item is fit for any particular use. The people who use the item or service (engineers, trade
unions, etc.) or specify it (building codes, government, industry, etc.) have the responsibility
to consider the available standards, specify the correct one, enforce compliance, and use the
item correctly: validation and verification.
Standardization is implemented greatly when companies release new products to market.
Compatibility is important for products to be successful; this allows consumers to use their
new items along with what they already own.

Social science[edit]
In the context of social criticism and social science, standardization often means the process
of establishing standards of various kinds and improving efficiency to handle people, their
interactions, cases, and so forth. Examples include formalization of judicial procedure in
court, and establishing uniform criteria for diagnosing mental disease. Standardization in this
sense is often discussed along with (or synonymously to) such large-scale social changes as
modernization, bureaucratization, homogenization, and centralization of society.

Information exchange[edit]
In the context of information exchange, standardization refers to the process of developing
standards for specific business processes using specific formal languages. These standards
are usually developed in voluntary consensus standards bodies such as the United Nations
Center for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT), the World Wide Web
Consortium W3C, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), and the Organization
for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS).
There are many specifications that govern the operation and interaction of devices and
software on the Internet, but they are rarely referred to as standards, so as to preserve that
word as the domain of relatively disinterested bodies such as ISO. The W3C, for example,

publishes "Recommendations", and the IETF publishes "Requests for Comments" (RFCs).
However, these publications are sometimes referred to as standards.

Customer service[edit]
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In the context of customer service, standardization refers to the process of developing an

international standard that enables organizations to focus their attention on delivering
excellence in customer service, whilst at the same time providing recognition of success
through a third party organization, such as the British Standards Institution (BSI). The
International Customer Service Standard (TICSS) has been developed by The International
Customer Service Institute (TICSI) with the objective of making it the cornerstone global
standard of customer service. This standard has the status of an independent standard.

Supply and materials management[edit]

In the context of supply chain management and materials management, standardization
covers the process of specification and use of any item the company must buy in or make,
allowable substitutions, and build or buy decisions.

Defense[edit]
In the context of defense, standardization has been defined by NATO as The development
and implementation of concepts, doctrines, procedures and designs to achieve and maintain
the required levels of compatibility, interchangeability or commonality in the operational,
procedural, material, technical and administrative fields to attain interoperability.[13]

Process[edit]
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The process of standardization can itself be standardized. There are at least four levels of
standardization: compatibility, interchangeability, commonality and reference. These

standardization processes create compatibility, similarity, measurement and symbol

standards.
There are typically four different techniques for standardization

Simplification or variety control

Codification

Value engineering

Statistical process control.

Types of standardization process:

Emergence as de facto standard: tradition, market domination, etc.

Written by a Standards organization:

in a closed consensus process: Restricted membership and often having

formal procedures for due-process among voting members

in a full consensus process: usually open to all interested and qualified

parties and with formal procedures for due-process considerations.

Written by a government or regulatory body

Written by a corporation, union, trade association, etc.

Effects[edit]
Standardization has a variety of benefits and drawbacks for firms and consumers
participating in the market, and on technology and innovation.

Effect on Firms[edit]
The primary effect of standardization on firms is that the basis of competition is shifted from
integrated systems to individual components within the system. Prior to standardization a
companys product must span the entire system because individual components from
different competitors are incompatible, but after standardization each company can focus on
providing an individual component of the system.[14] When the shift toward competition based

on individual components takes place, firms selling tightly integrated systems must quickly
shift to a modular approach, supplying other companies with subsystems or components. [15]

Effect on Consumers[edit]
Standardization has a variety of benefits for consumers, but one of the greatest benefits is
enhanced network effects. Standards increase compatibility and interoperability between
products, allowing information to be shared within a larger network and attracting more
consumers to use the new technology, further enhancing network effects.[16]Other benefits of
standardization to consumers are reduced uncertainty, because consumers can be more
certain that they are not choosing the wrong product, and reduced lock-in, because the
standard makes it more likely that there will be competing products in the space.
[17]

Consumers may also get the benefit of being able to mix and match components of a

system to align with their specific preferences.[18]

Probably the greatest downside of standardization for consumers is lack of variety. There is
no guarantee that the chosen standard will meet all consumers needs or even that the
standard is the best available option.[19] Another downside is that if a standard is agreed upon
before products are available in the market, then consumers are deprived of the penetration
pricing that often results when rivals are competing to rapidly increase market share in an
attempt to increase the likelihood that their product will become the standard. [20] It is also
possible that a consumer will choose a product based upon a standard that fails to become
dominant.[21] In this case, the consumer will have spent resources on a product that is
ultimately less useful to him or her as the result of the standardization process.

Effect on Technology[edit]
Much like the effect on consumers, the effect of standardization on technology and
innovation is mixed. Increased adoption of a new technology as a result of standardization is
important because rival and incompatible approaches competing in the marketplace can
slow or even kill the growth of the technology.[22] The shift to a modularized architecture as a
result of standardization brings increased flexibility, rapid introduction of new products, and
the ability to more closely meet individual customers needs.[23]
The negative effects of standardization on technology have to do with its tendency to restrict
new technology and innovation. Standards shift competition from features to price because
the features are defined by the standard. The degree to which this is true depends on the
specificity of the standard.[24] Standardization in an area also rules out alternative
technologies as options while encouraging others.[25]