Standards provide a quality way of life

Standards provide a quality way of life

Keshav Ram Singhal

‘Standards provide a quality way of life’ is the today’s topic of this evening. I am thankful to the Rotary Club for providing me an opportunity to speak on this topic.

I am among those, who support compliance of standards because I firmly believe that standards provide a quality way of life. Standards are norms, part of a system providing requirements. Let me first define ‘standards’. What do we mean by standards? One can define standard as a widely accepted specification or best practice. Standards are developed by experts. If we study today’s economy, we come to know that today’s world economy creates an environment where standards compliance is not an option, it is becoming a requirement.

Quality of life is often used as shorthand for measuring how good a person feels about his life. There are various formal procedures for calculating this measure that includes factors such as economic, social, physical, political and spiritual well-being. Standards help in streamlining the things. I would like to name a small country to provide an example with regard to quality way of life. Singapore may be the smallest country in Southeast Asia but it has emerged as one of the best to live in Asia with a very high quality of life measurement. Singapore emerged as the ‘Happiest Country in Asia’ in a study reported by ABC News. 95 per cent of Singapore residents appreciate the clean, safe and efficient society. Quality is not a catchword; it is a way of life.

I believe in standards, because I believe standards can:
- achieve excellence in business,
- achieve excellence in human life,
- achieve continual improvement,
- improve value to human beings by meeting their needs,
- motivate users to become committed to quality,
- ensure care and responsibility

In today’s world, human needs and expectations are constantly changing and standards provide a quality way of life. The term ‘quality of life’ is used to evaluate the general well-being of individual and societies. The term is used in a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, and political science. Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of living, which is based primarily on income. Instead, standards indicators of the quality of life include not only wealth and employment, but also the built environment, physical and mental health, education, recreation and leisure time, and social belonging.

Standards matter us very much. Standards make an enormous and positive contribution to most aspects of human life. Standards ensure desirable characteristics of products and services, such as quality, environmental friendliness, safety, reliability, efficiency and interchangeability and at an economical cost. When any products or services meet our expectations, we tend to take this for granted and are unaware of the role of standards. However, when standards are absent, we soon notice. We soon notice when any product or service is of poor quality. When products, systems, machinery and devices work well and safely, it is often because they meet standards.

Now I will let you know that what standards do. Standards make the development, manufacturing and supply of products and services more efficient, safer and cleaner. Standards disseminate innovation, safeguard consumers and users in general and make life simpler by providing solutions to common problems.

When we implement international standards (such as ISO, IEC, ITU), such standards facilitate trade between countries, provide governments with a technical base for health, safety and environmental legislation and conformity assessment. Standards share technological advancement and good management practice.

Now let me tell a few things about an international body known as ‘ISO’, which is responsible for many thousands of the standards that benefit the whole world. ‘International organization for Standardization’ (ISO) is the world’s largest developer and publisher of international standards. It is a network of national standards bodies of 162 countries, one member per country. Its headquarters is situated in Geneva, Switzerland. ISO is a non-governmental organization. It forms a bridge between public and private sectors. Many ISO members are part of the governmental structures of their countries or mandated by their government and on the other hand, many other ISO members have their roots uniquely in the private sector, having been set up by national partnerships of industry associations. As on 31 December 2008, ISO has published 17,765 international standards and standards-type documents. ISO is the world largest standards developing organization. More details about ISO may be seen at its website www.iso.org.

Now I would like to tell about our national standard institution. BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) is the national standards body in our country. BIS represents our country and is a member of ISO. BIS is involved in formulation and certification of standards. BIS has adopted many ISO standards as national standards. BIS headquarters is situated in New Delhi. More details about BIS may be seen at its website at www.bis.org.in.

Here it will be better to mention some popular standards. You must have heard about ISO 9001:2000 QMS and ISO 14001:2004 EMS certifications. Many organizations in the world are implementing these ISO’s best known standards. ISO 9001:2000 QMS and ISO 14001:2004 EMS standards are implemented by over a million organizations in 175 countries. ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standard is the latest quality management system certification standard. This standard mentions requirements for a quality management system, where an organization needs to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide product, aims to enhance customer satisfaction. ISO 14001:2004 EMS Standard is the environmental management system certification standard. This standard provides the requirements for environmental management systems (EMS). The standard contributes to any organization’s objectives to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner. Today we can not afford to ignore the environmental aspect of business. In business, waste means cost. Saving energy means saving money. Superior environmental management has a positive impact on the bottom line. Waste management and energy savings start with application of ISO 14001:2004 EMS.

In the direction of development of risk management, ISO has recently launched a new International Standard ISO 31000:2009, Risk management, Principles and guidelines.
ISO has launched ISO 22000:2005 with the concept that food will not cause harm to consumers when it is prepared and/or eaten according to its intended use. ISO 22000:2005 is the standard for food safety management system, based on the principle that food shall be harmless to consumers. This standard is based on the prerequisites (GMP + GHP), HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) and management systems requirements.

ISO has recently issued Draft International Standard ISO/DIS 26000, a guidance standard on social responsibility. The aim of the social responsibility is to contribute to sustainable development and to become increasingly aware of the need for and benefits of socially responsible behavior.
ISO/IES 17025:2005 is the standard providing general requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories.

In a global economy, standardization is a must. It is a prerequisite for effectiveness, performance and optimization of production activities. ISO /IEC 17799:2005 is the code of practice for information security management. This standard identifies the controls that form the starting point for information security.

Above are a few examples of standards that provide a quality way of life and we get great benefits from standards that are developed from the wealth of knowledge of some 50,000 experts worldwide.

Courtesy Sources – (i) ‘Management Systems Awareness’ – Publication Series, National Centre for Quality Management, Ajmer Centre (ii) www.writeforandadvanntage.com (iii) www.guidemesingapore.com (iv) www.sciencedirect.com (v) www.thecqi.org (vi) www.wikipedia.org (vii) www.iso.org (viii) www.bis.org.in

4 December, 2009