You got an alarm call on your phone. A new day is here. The Bluetooth speaker in your shower plays music. You can check your blood pressure and other vitals on your health device. You browse the Internet while eating breakfast. When you close your garage door, your home security system goes on.
The electric vehicle (EV) is unplugged in the garage. You got an update to your map and playlists overnight. Your EV prevents accidents by communicating with other cars and intelligent infrastructure.
You use dozens of technology standards every day, from when you wake up to when you leave for work. But unfortunately, most of us don’t realize that standards exist for a reason – to simplify our lives.
What are the standards?
Standards are agreed-upon ways of doing things. Organizations and their customers use standards from making products to managing processes, delivering services, and supplying materials.
A standard is distilled wisdom from people who understand the needs of their organizations and have expertise in their subject matter. Examples include manufacturing companies, sellers, buyers, customers, trade associations, users, and regulators.
You don’t have to follow rules that make your life harder; you’re given ways to do your job more efficiently since they’re voluntary.
The standards embody knowledge, and they can enhance productivity and innovation. With the help of SAI Global standards, organizations will be able to achieve tremendous success, and the general public will enjoy healthier, safer, and easier lives.
Why are standards necessary?
Standards are protocols that can be universally understood and adopted, which are the basis for product development. Compatibility and interoperability simplify product development, speed up time-to-market, and promote compatibility. Furthermore, standards make it easier to compare competing products. Standards are what fuel international trade, which is globally adopted and applied.
Standards provide detailed information that manufacturers can use when developing products to save time and money. Moreover, the framework doesn’t have to be created from scratch, troubleshot and refined, and convinced other manufacturers to use it. Instead, they can join and leverage an ecosystem of like-minded companies and organizations by adopting a standard.
If consumers and businesses are confident that a product will perform as expected, they’re more likely to buy it. Standard interoperability also lets them mix and match different manufacturers’ products.
What’s the process for creating standards?
Understanding how standards are developed, revised, and used is the key to reaping these and other benefits. It’s one of the most prominent standards organizations in the world, and it brings people and organizations together into open “working groups” worldwide. Many standards are used in the health care, automotive, and consumer electronics industries.
These volunteer working groups develop standards collaboratively. For example, to maximize battery life, members of the working group agree that devices must be able to send moderate amounts of data over short distances using very little power. It’s how IEEE 802.15.1TM Bluetooth works – so earbuds, smartphones, and smartwatches can all talk to each other.
The working group fleshes out this basic concept as a standard develops. This ensures product compatibility, facilitates interoperability, protects user privacy, and makes products work.
What do standards do?
There are standards for everything from construction, nanotechnology, energy management, health and safety, and cricket balls.
A product type is one example, while a management practice is another.
A standard gives people a way to communicate expectations reliably. This way, we can:
- Boost trade
- Make it easier to get economies, efficiencies, and interoperability
- Ensure consumer safety and confidence.
Organizations can use these:
- Implement a quality management system to increase efficiency and reduce product failures
- Implement an environmental management system to reduce environmental impacts, reduce waste, and be more sustainable
- Establishing health and safety standards to reduce workplace accidents
- Keeping sensitive information safe with IT security
- The construction of a house should follow a standard
- Energy management standards can help reduce energy consumption
- Food safety standards for preventing contamination of food
- Buildings should have an accessibility standard to make them accessible to disabled people.
- An international interoperability standard ensures that banks and credit cards can be used in ATMs worldwide.
Conclusion
We need standards to keep customers safe, innovate better products, and prevent fraud. Also, it’s a rating system. Therefore, customers know how good a product or service is, giving some companies an advantage. So it’s not just necessary but also highly beneficial to standardize.