World Standards Day 2016

Today we’re celebrating World Standards Day here in the U.S.  In most countries, the date is usually the 3rd Thursday in October.  However ANSI takes advantage of the event to schedule a week-long series of meetings for the various standards constituencies it represents.  So this year the date of  the U.S. World Standards Day is today, the 27th.

The theme for this year’s  World Standards Day is “Standards Build Trust.” Some regular activities include an international competition (usually a paper, but this year a video).  And here in the U.S., there is also a paper competition sponsored by SES, the Society for Standards Professionals.

For those of us in the standards business, standardization does represent a methodology for achieving consistency and safety in the products and services we use every day.  Standardization underpins commerce, creating an inherent confidence in the functionality of the products we buy.   And having “Standards Build Trust” as the World Standards Day theme reenforces this basic concept.

However, certainly within SES, there has come to be a movement towards acknowledging the supporting role certification plays in making the greater goals of standardization a reality.  Peter Unger of the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation has been a champion for this viewpoint.  The introduction of the testing and certification into the SES agenda has provided a fresh look at the interaction between standards and the realities of the marketplace.  “Trust but verify” seems to be the mantra here.

I know that many organizations find additional 3rd party testing to be combersome at times.  However, I noticed in a Wall Street Journal article the other day that the Samsung phones currently undergoing a recall were only tested in-house.  This suggests that such testing is not only appropriate to meet compliance requirements, but also to provide outside validation of design and manufacturing decisions prior to the release of a product.

Be that as it may, there is no doubt that the standardization community is growing.  With the addition of players from around the world, it’s clear that the global community deeply understands the value of standards.  Face it, we live on just one planet and the needs of one are really the needs of many.  Here at Document Center Inc., we are proud to be a part of that “hidden infrastructure” that makes that world a safer, more integrated, and sustainable place.