Standards organization
A standards organization, standards body, standards developing organization, or standards setting organization is an organization whose primary function is developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpreting, or otherwise contributing to the usefulness of technical standards to those who employ them. Such an organization works to create uniformity across producers, consumers, government agencies, and other relevant parties regarding terminology, product specifications, protocols, and more. Its goals could include ensuring that Company A's external hard drive works on Company B's computer, an individual's blood pressure measures the same with Company C's sphygmomanometer as it does with Company D's, or that all shirts that should not be ironed have the same icon on the label.
Most standards are voluntary in the sense that they are offered for adoption by people or industry without being mandated in law. Some standards become mandatory when they are adopted by regulators as legal requirements in particular domains, often for the purpose of safety or for consumer protection from deceitful practices.
The term formal standard refers specifically to a specification that has been approved by a standards setting organization. The term de jure standard refers to a standard mandated by legal requirements or refers generally to any formal standard. In contrast, the term de facto standard refers to a specification that has achieved widespread use and acceptance – often without being approved by any standards organization. Examples of de facto standards that were not approved by any standards organizations include the Hayes command set developed by Hayes, Apple's TrueType font design and the PCL protocol used by Hewlett-Packard in the computer printers they produced.
Normally, the term standards organization is not used to refer to the individual parties participating within the standards developing organization in the capacity of founders, benefactors, stakeholders, members or contributors, who themselves may function as or lead the standards organizations.
History
Standardization
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 and interchangeable parts. Henry Maudslay developed the first industrially practical screw-cutting lathe in 1800, which allowed for the standardization of screw thread sizes for the first time.Maudslay's work, as well as the contributions of other engineers, accomplished a modest amount of industry standardization; some companies' in-house standards also began to spread more widely within their industries. Joseph Whitworth's screw thread measurements were adopted as the first national standard by companies around Britain in 1841. It came to be known as the British Standard Whitworth, and was widely adopted in other countries.
Early standards organizations
By the end of the 19th century differences in standards between companies was making trade increasingly difficult and strained. For instance, in 1895 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. 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 für 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.
International organizations
Several international organizations create international standards, such as Codex Alimentarius in food, the World Health Organization Guidelines in health, or ITU Recommendations in ICT and being publicly funded, are freely available for consideration and use worldwide.International standards associations
In 1904, Crompton represented Britain at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, as part of a delegation by the Institute of Electrical Engineers. He presented a paper on standardization, which was so well received that he was asked to look into the formation of a commission to oversee the process. By 1906, his work was complete and he drew up a permanent terms for the International Electrotechnical Commission. The body held its first meeting that year in London, with representatives from 14 countries. In honour of his contribution to electrical standardization, Lord Kelvin was elected as the body's first President.The International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations 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 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 new International Organization for Standardization; the new organization officially began operations in February 1947.
Overview
Standards organizations can be classified by their role, position, and the extent of their influence on the local, national, regional, and global standardization arena.By geographic designation, there are international, regional, and national standards bodies. By technology or industry designation, there are standards developing organizations and also standards setting organizations also known as consortia. Standards organizations may be governmental, quasi-governmental or non-governmental entities. Quasi- and non-governmental standards organizations are often non-profit organizations.
International standards organizations
Broadly, an international standards organization develops international standards.There are many international standards organizations. The three largest and most well-established such organizations are the International Organization for Standardization, the International Electrotechnical Commission, and the International Telecommunication Union, which have each existed for more than 50 years and are all based in Geneva, Switzerland. They have established tens of thousands of standards covering almost every conceivable topic. Many of these are then adopted worldwide replacing various incompatible "homegrown" standards. Many of these standards are naturally evolved from those designed in-house within an industry, or by a particular country, while others have been built from scratch by groups of experts who sit on various technical committees. These three organizations together comprise the World Standards Cooperation alliance.
ISO is composed of the national standards bodies, one per member economy. The IEC is similarly composed of national committees, one per member economy. In some cases, the national committee to the IE233
C of an economy may also be the ISO member from that country or economy. ISO and IEC are private international organizations that are not established by any international treaty. Their members may be non-governmental organizations or governmental agencies, as selected by ISO and IEC.
The ITU is a treaty-based organization established as a permanent agency of the United Nations, in which governments are the primary members, although other organizations can also hold a form of direct membership status in the ITU as well. Another example of a treaty-based international standards organization with government membership is the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
Image:Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas 01.jpg|thumb|right|Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas building, as seen in 2014
In addition to these, a large variety of independent international standards organizations such as the ASME, ASTM International, the , the IEEE, the Internet Engineering Task Force, SAE International, TAPPI, the World Wide Web Consortium, and the Universal Postal Union develop and publish standards for a variety of international uses. In many such cases, these international standards organizations are not based on the principle of one member per country. Rather, membership in such organizations is open to those interested in joining and willing to agree to the organization's by-laws – having either organizational/corporate or individual technical experts as members.
The Airlines Electronic Engineering Committee was formed in 1949 to prepare avionics system engineering standards with other aviation organizations RTCA, EUROCAE, and ICAO. The standards are widely known as the ARINC Standards.
Regional standards organizations
Regional standards bodies also exist, such as the European Committee for Standardization, the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, and the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements in Europe, the Pacific Area Standards Congress, the Pan American Standards Commission, the African Organisation for Standardisation, the Arabic industrial development and mining organization, and others.In the European Union, only standards created by CEN, CENELEC, and ETSI are recognized as European standards, and member states are required to notify the European Commission and each other about all the draft technical regulations concerning ICT products and services before they are adopted in national law. These rules were laid down in Directive 98/34/EC with the goal of providing transparency and control with regard to technical regulations.
Sub-regional standards organizations also exist such as the MERCOSUR Standardization Association, the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality, and the ASEAN Consultative Committee for Standards and Quality, EAC East Africa Standards Committee www.eac-quality.net, and the GCC Standardization Organization for Arab States of the Persian Gulf.