2.3.1 The nature of standards
We must now ask ourselves "Why do we use standards?" Surely, each organisation knows what it is doing, how they should best do it and how they can measure what they do against what they would like to achieve!
To assist ourselves in answering this question, we should define a "standard". According to ISO, standards are "... documented agreements containing technical specifications or other precise criteria to be used consistently as rules, guidelines or definitions of characteristics to ensure that materials, processes and services are fit for their purpose." If this is the aim of standards, what does this tell us about ISO's view of quality?
Activity 2.2
In the space below, write what you understand to be the perception of quality by ISO. Does this view differ from what we understood Quality to mean in chapter 1? How?
Standards are well established in many industries. They are also very familiar to us in our daily lives. The credit card, for instance, follows a standard dimension. So do electrical fittings, car parts, building construction and architecture, to name just a few. We are all familiar with the multi-modal transport container, which sees usage in many unplanned ways - storage, office space, residence, and so forth. The next reading is the story of how the ISO standards for containers were decided. The writer is Vince Grey, the former Secretary and Chairman of ISO Technical Committee 104.
Reading 2.2
"Setting standards - a phenomenal success story", by Vince Grey.
We see from this story how the ISO container came into international use. There are many other examples that serve to illustrate how standards have helped in developing international trade as well as others that have restricted trade. In most cases, such standards are national. When they do not conform with the international standards, trade would conceivably be restricted. We see, for instance, that there is no international standard on electric plugs. When we travel internationally, we need to check that we have adaptors for the other countries where we will go. The same applies, for example, to electricity and to car wheel sizes - these vary between countries and makes. Not even the globalisation of the electronics and automobile industries has been able to bring about standardisation of the electricity voltages being used in various countries; some use PAL video systems while others use SECAM. The list can be quite long.
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