49 - Standards and Certification

Abstract

Standards are vital components of a marketing strategy. Ordering and procurement is increasingly done over the Internet and in order to ensure that the products are suitable for the purpose required, compliance with a nationally and internationally approved standard is of huge importance to customers. Reflecting the growth of electronic communication, standards authorities such as the British Standards Institution have been making considerable investment in Information Technology (IT) in order to exploit the rapid communication possibilities of IT in providing industry with the standards it needs. From the year 2000, this has become the major means of communication in the standards field. Standardization is also needed to avoid the pitfalls of proliferation of sizes and performance specifications, which in the absence of standardization, would make the replacement of a damaged component by one of different manufacture or even from the same manufacturer difficult if modifications have been subsequently made to the design.