Standardization principles: goals and functions

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Standardization is one of the greatest inventions of mankind. It is necessary to protect the interests of the state and consumers in terms of the quality of products, services and processes. What are the main goals and principles of standardization? How does this process work in practice?

Pursued goals (tasks)

Standardization is done to:

1. Increase the level of security of the he alth or life of citizens, ensure the safety of property of legal entities and individuals, as well as the state or municipal organizations, maintain environmental safety.
2. Ensure scientific and technological progress.
3. Increase the level of security of facilities, taking into account the risk of technical and natural emergencies.
4. Streamline the use of resources.
5. Increase the competitiveness of works, services, products.
6. Ensure the interchangeability of created products.
7. Compare the results of tests, studies, measurements, as well as economic, statistical and technical data.

About principles andfunctions

As a science and an activity, standardization is built on certain foundations. They are called principles. Among them, there are twelve main ones. They will be grouped and all considered. In addition to them, the functions that standardization performs to achieve certain technical, economic and social goals will be considered. But let's talk about everything in order.

About application

The first two principles we will look at will apply to their use:

1. Voluntary application of standards, as well as providing opportunities for their uniform use. What does it mean? National standards are adopted on a voluntary basis equally. At the same time, the place or country of origin, the specifics of the life cycle of products, the provision of services, the performance of work, and the specifics of transactions should not have an influence. This is how standardization principles work for an organization.
2. Using international standards as the basis for national ones. The only exceptions to this are cases when this is not possible due to geographical and climatic features or technological specifics of production.

It is not always possible to use the principles and methods of standardization. Sometimes the reason for this may be certain political motives.

Balance, consistency, dynamism

Now let's get straight to the principles themselves. Consider the following three:

1. Balance of interests of the parties that develop, manufacture, provide and consume goods (services). In another way, this principle provides for maximum consideration of all legitimate interests possessed by the listed parties. So, it is necessary to take into account the capabilities of the product manufacturer (service provider) and the requirements of the consumer. At the same time, a consensus is sought, that is, a position of general agreement is reached, when there are no objections on important issues from the majority of representatives of the interested parties. Ideally, you need to take into account the opinions of everyone and bring differing points of view as close as possible. Although reaching full unanimity is not necessary here.
2. Systematic. In this case, it is understood that each object should be considered as an integral part of a more complex system. Let's consider a small example. We have a bottle. This is a consumer package. It is part of a more complex system - a box. It, in turn, is placed in a container, which is loaded onto a vehicle (for example, a sea vessel). Consistency involves combining all these elements and considering them as one complex system.
3. Dynamism. Leading development of the standard. As you know, any norms are used to model real-life patterns. But one cannot ignore scientific and technological progress, which makes changes in management processes and technology. Therefore, it is necessary to adapt the standards to the ongoing changes. Dynamism refers to the periodic review of accepted standards and the introduction of the necessarychanges. To minimize exposure to a moral standard, care must be taken to keep it ahead of the development of society.

About efficiency

The basic principles of standardization simultaneously provide for the adequacy of the approach when creating common rules. After all, it is possible to create the most “environmentally friendly” requirements, but will enterprises be able to pull them off? Consider a small group of three principles that do this:

1. It is unacceptable to create obstacles to production processes, circulation of products, provision of services, performance of work more than is necessary to achieve the goals. That is, it is necessary to take into account the readiness of organizations and countries to meet increased requirements. Otherwise, it may paralyze their activities.
2. Efficiency of standardization. Its application should provide a certain social or economic effect. For example, saving resources, increasing reliability, information and technical compatibility, ensuring the safety of people's he alth and life, the environment.
3. Harmonization. This principle provides for standardization in such a way that it does not contradict technical regulations. Ensuring the identity of documents that refer to the same object allows you to improve the situation without creating problems in trade.

Bureaucratic moments

And the last group of principles has four components:

1. Clarity of the wording of provisions. If the normscan be interpreted ambiguously, this indicates the presence of serious defects.
2. Complexity in processing related objects. The quality of the finished product depends on the raw material, material, semi-finished product and / or components. Therefore, standardization should take into account all stages of product creation / service provision.
3. Objectivity of requirements check. It is necessary to put forward such requests that can be successfully and unambiguously verified. This applies to compatibility, interchangeability, safety for he alth, life, property, the environment. Objective verification is carried out by technical means (for example, instruments or methods of chemical analysis). In addition, it can be carried out using expert or sociological methods. As confirmation of its successful completion, certificates of conformity or conclusions of state authorities are used.
4. Providing the required conditions for the uniform application of accepted standards.

What are the functions?

Standardization to achieve technical, economic and social goals fulfills:

1. The ordering function. It involves overcoming an extraordinary variety of objects. Allows you to simplify and limit bloated product lines or documentation.
2. Security function. Ensures the safety of the consumer of goods and services, as well as the manufacturer and the state. Unites the efforts of mankind in terms of protecting nature from the technogenic impact of civilization.
3. Resource saving function. It is due to the limited natural, material, labor and energy resources. Sets a limit on their spending.
4. Communication function. It is aimed at ensuring communication and interaction between people. This is necessary to overcome barriers and promote economic, scientific and technological cooperation.
5. Civilizing function. Promotes the improvement of the quality of goods and services with a gradual improvement in living standards. As an example, we can cite the requirements for the presence / concentration of harmful substances in drinking water, food and everything else that affects human life expectancy.
6. Information function. It is aimed at providing material production, science and technology, as well as other areas with standards of measures, samples, regulatory documents as carriers of valuable technological and management data.
7. The function of rule-making and law enforcement. It manifests itself in the form of legalization of requirements and general use after the document receives legal force.

Preparatory work

How does it all start? The launched processes are based on the scientific principles of standardization. That is, they are not taken from somewhere out of the blue, but are accepted on the basis of certain developments. At the same time, they can be tested using the tools of the theoretical and empirical scientific method. Indeed, otherwise, unpleasant consequences may arise, which will be very difficult to eliminate. Whereas the use of the scientific method allows minimizing the likelihood of the assumptionerrors.

On increasing efficiency

Let's spend a few more words on how the principles and features of standardization improve the result. The application of certain norms should always be aimed at a certain economic or social effect. In the first case, this is expressed in saving resources, increasing reliability, information and technical compatibility. The social effect is understood as ensuring the safety of the environment, he alth and life of people. As international practice shows, it is beneficial for the state to develop this area, because there is a return of 1:10. That is, for one invested ruble, ten profits are obtained. Therefore, all these principles, compliance with standardization and increased efficiency are only in our favor if we approach them adequately.

International Standards

The Russian Federation is not much different in this regard. This is largely due to the fact that international standards were chosen as the basis for a large number of state standards. Sometimes, as in the case of IFRS, they may be recommended for use. There are also those who come into a certain conflict with international developments.

Conclusion

So the goals (tasks) and principles of standardization were considered. Of course, the information provided is only enough to get a general idea of what and how. If you need to understand a particular area, you will need to further study the existing information anddeal with her. Only the goals remain unchanged and constant here - to make people's lives more convenient and comfortable.