Who Sets Engineering Standards? A Guide to Key Standards Bodies

Introduction

Engineering standards don’t appear out of nowhere, they’re created, maintained, and updated by standards bodies that bring together industry experts, researchers, regulators, and manufacturers. In this guide, you’ll learn who these organizations are, what they publish, how standards get made, and how to choose the right standard for your project.

Standards

A standard can be defined as a set of technical definitions and guidelines; “how to” instructions for designers, manufacturers, and users.

Standards promote safety, reliability, productivity, and efficiency in almost every industry that relies on engineering components or equipment. Standards may run from a few paragraphs to hundreds of pages, and are written by experts with knowledge and expertise in a particular field who sit on many committees.

Standards only become mandatory when they have been incorporated into a business contract or incorporated into regulations. In themselves, they are not mandatory by law.

Standards are a vehicle of communication for producers and users. They serve as a common language, defining quality and establishing safety criteria. Costs are lower if procedures are standardized; training is also simplified. Interchangeability is another reason (imagine if you bought a bolt in one shop, and a nut from another shop and they didn’t fit together, or if you have a debit card from one bank, but it didn’t fit into an ATM for a different bank!) Items like these are standardised so that they follow a common, agreed, size and tolerances throughout the world.

A typical engineering design project may use standards to cover things such as :

• A quality management standard
• An environmental management standard
• A Health and safety standard
• An energy management standard
• An accessibility standard

We will now look at some key standards and organizations that you should be aware of:

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

ISO is an independent, non-governmental international organization which is recognised around the world for using expert knowledge to create international standards. Two standards that an engineer should be familiar with are:

ISO9001 – ISO9001 is a world leading quality management standard. From an engineering perspective it sets the standard in how you should carry out activities such as following a systematic and process approach to continuous improvement, management quality issues in the company, and ensuring that you remain customer focused.

It is not mandatory for any company to follow ISO9001, however you will find many companies both small and very large that will advertise and promote the fact that they achieve ISO9001 certification.

ISO 14001 Environmental Management – ISO14001 is an environmental management standard also produced by ISO.

ISO 14001:2015 specifies the requirements for an environmental management system that an organization can use to enhance its environmental performance. ISO 14001:2015 is intended for use by an organization seeking to manage its environmental responsibilities in a systematic manner that contributes to the environmental pillar of sustainability. [ISO.org]

Companies can use ISO14001 as a guide to how to improve the environmental management systems, from designing to manufacturing. 

British Standards (BS)

The British Standards Institute (BSI) are responsible for the creation of all British Standards. You many recognise them by identifying with the logo:

BSI work very closely with ISO in the creation and management of popular international standards.

BS8888 – BS8888 is the British Standard that you should be familiar with Engineering drawings and specifications. The document brings together all the international standards needed for the creation of technical product specifications, and the drawing of product parts and components.

There are specific ways that engineering drawings should be laid out, and how to draw the symbols that are used. These are all defined within BS8888.

Advantages of following BS 8888:

• Ensure access to one reference source with all the relevant information  
• Enable a shared language when specifying and graphically representing products 
• Provide precision and accuracy, leaving no room for misinterpretation 
• Help the smooth transfer of the design concept to the manufacturing process 
• Shorten product development time and increase speed to market
• Reduce disputes over compliance or noncompliance of components
• Reduce scrap and re-work rates
• Reduce queries due to incomplete specifications
• Help UK industry move over more fully to the ISO system of geometrical product specification, bringing improved productivity, reduced costs and enhanced quality

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)

ASTM International is one of the largest voluntary standards developing organizations in the world covering areas from Materials, Products, Systems and Services. Their focus is on material data and testing in areas such as:

• Plastics
• Adhesives
• Rubber
• Iron and steel
• Nonferrous metal
• Metal test methods and analytical procedures
• Electrical insulation and electronics
• Water and environmental technology
• Nuclear
• Solar and geothermal energy
• Medical devices and services

You will often see the ASTM logo on material data sheets, to show that that material meets the requirements set out by ASTM.

https://www.astm.org/Standard/standards-and-publications.html

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standardisation/standardisation

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