In a competitive marketplace, customer satisfaction determines the market share for each supplier, and ultimately it determines which suppliers of products or services survive. Any marketplace with multiple suppliers favors the customer, and customers demand quality products and services that meet accepted standards. For any business to have a competitive advantage over other businesses that offer similar products or services and compete for the same set of prospective customers, that business must be capable of replicating the products or services it offers to some prescribed standard or ‘measurement yardstick’.
When used by industry, standards can work to:
* Promote market efficiency and expansion.
* Foster international trade.
* Encourage competition and lower barriers to market entry.
* Diffuse new technologies
* Protect consumers against unsafe or substandard products.
Applicable Standards to Manufacturing
A standard can be thought of as an agreed upon set of specifications regarding some aspect of manufacturing where, every time it is applied, the user of the resulting product can trust it to have certain important characteristics. The application of standards to manufacturing companies can be classified in three (3) areas.
1. Test and Measurement Standards
These are physical standards that are used to make measurements on the product or to monitor the production process to ensure the requirements of the product are met. These standards would be equipment used to measure quantities for Mass, Length, Temperature, Pressure etc.
The important factors to consider in the application of these standards are the accuracy and precision of the result obtained.Hence, it is important that these standards are calibrated, used and maintained to ensure that the results are accurate. These should be traceable to International Standards.
2. Documented Standards for Manufacturing Operations
These are Product, Process and Management System standards that are embodied in written documents. These standards can be classified as Company, Association, National, Regional and International based on the process of development. Examples of these standards are: Sampling and Test methods; In-process parameters or controls; Specification for final product such as: Performance requirements, Labelling and Packaging requirements, Safety and other Quality requirements etc.; and Standards for managing the operations in the areas of Quality, Environment, Occupational Health and Safety etc. The most important factor to consider in the application of these standards is to ensure that the requirements stipulated by the buyer/marketplace are addressed.
3. Standards for Conformity Assessment
These are standards that are embodied in written documents and developed internationally by ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation). They are established to ensure that the process for Testing, Inspection and Certification to provide assurance on product quality, is credible, reliable and accurate.
These standards are of utmost importance for providing assurance on the quality of products, because they can be the deciding factor in being able to access certain marketplaces and ultimately they can determine which businesses will fail or succeed in a fiercely competitive trade arena.
For further information please contact the GNBS on telephone numbers: 219-0064, 219-0065, 219-0066.
