WHAT IS A STANDARD?
The purpose of standardization is to provide reference documents.
A technical specification or other document available to the public, drawn up with the cooperation and consensus or general approval of all interests affected by it based on the consolidated results of science, technology and experience aimed at promoting optimum community benefits and approved by a body recognised on the national, regional or international level. A tool for dialogue and reference that facilitates communication and exchanges between manufacturers, users, customers and other partners.
The role of the Standard is to:
- Propose solutions to technical and commercial problems
- Represent a know-how and a technology
- Establish a compromise between the state-of-the-art and economic constraints
- Serve as the embodiment of quality, safety and more generally confidence, to reduce the barriers to trade and optimise customer/supplier relations, to simplify technical specifications, to control the products’ technical characteristics and to facilitate the CE marking of products.
Different types of standards (example of classification)
- from the point of view of content: basic standards, test and analysis methods, specifications, recommendations, organisational standards.
- from the structural point of view: performance standards, process standards.
Standards are voluntary in nature and there is no obligation to conform to them.
They represent the companies’ commitments to satisfying a recognised and approved level of quality and safety. They will be used by industrial and service companies, regulatory bodies if and only if their technical content is recognised and if they meet the needs of users. By being cited as reference documents, standards can support mandatory regulations issued by the public authorities.
