5.2 Standardization and quality control

It is not enough just to produce: one must also sell one's products, and successful marketing today is much dependent upon the control of quality. Standardization performs a number of valuable economic purposes. In the present-day competitive industrial society, quality-assurance and certified standards are of crucial significance for successfully commercializing various technologies. The technologies have not only to be proven for utilization, but the products must also be proved adequately reliable in terms of quality. Otherwise, they may not be able to stand the market forces for long.

The main objectives of standardization are: (a) to provide a means for communication between the manufacturer and consumer; (b) to ensure interchangeability; (c) simplification (or reduction of variety); (d) to ensure safety, health and protection of life; (e) promotion of overall economy; and  (f) elimination of technical barriers to trade.

The detailed relationship of standardization with technology development has sometimes been questioned. Researchers have argued that standardization may discourage exploration of potentially fruitful avenues of research. Fortunately, as the technologies move through frequent changes, standards also evolve in the process, are challenged and so a substantial amount of innovative activity revolves around the struggle between competing standards.

Standardization allows various equipment manufacturers to utilize the same supplier of a particular component, thus allowing for achieving economies of scale and so a reduction in the cost of inventories is possible for the users. Design-costs are reduced, as are the tooling-costs and set-up time for equipment. It may also allow for greater interchangeability of parts, which should stimulate greater competition among suppliers of parts. Furthermore, there may be economics of scale in the supply of complementary products, as well as in the provision of repair services. For example, standardization of microcomputer operating systems (e.g. Windows) makes possible the large-scale production of standard applications software.

Another advantage of standardization is the reduction in costs of learning: a person trained to use a particular PC would be able to utilize any other compatible PC-machine, with little or no additional training. Furthermore, standards reduce the costs of transaction by diminishing uncertainty regarding the quality and performance features of products. If a product is known to meet certain well-defined standards, the buyer can be assured, with a high degree of probability, which it will perform in a certain specified manner.

When a government sets the standards, it normally relies on technical committees, consisting of representatives, from manufacturers, users, government departments and university laboratories, to work out the specifications. To implement standards, an institution is normally required, which can establish sampling and testing procedures, institute a certification program, and provide technical advice to manufacturers to bring their products up to the standards. A certification program, wherein qualified manufacturers are issued licenses attesting to their conformance with standards, is equivalent to a national quality-assurance program. Since a standards body cannot monitor continuously the quality-performance of every certified manufacturer, the program then requires to be complemented by quality-assurance programs within the productive enterprises themselves or, where the industry consists of many small-scale producers, in specialized research institutes or testing laboratories serving that particular industry. The national standards body would need to endorse the sampling and testing programs of such institutes and laboratories. Independent testing laboratories are, in fact, an integral part of standards implementation.

To ensure the reliability of the equipment used in testing and measurement, whether in the firms' own laboratories, in the independent testing laboratories, or in a central research laboratory, a regular system of calibration needs to be instituted. Normally, by the common hierarchical "calibration chains" approach, the closer one approaches the central national laboratory, the stricter are the conditions under which instruments are calibrated. In practical terms, what matters is how well the instrument performs measurements under a range of actual operating conditions, it may be useful for the laboratory that calibrates the instruments to do so under a wide spectrum of conditions than are likely expected to be encountered in actual use. This approach may be particularly appropriate to developing countries, where the operating environment for the measuring instruments may not be as readily controllable and predictable as in developed countries.

The enunciation of ISO 9000, 14000, etc. series programs have opened a new era, wherein the certification of standard organizational procedures have been advocated as strong proponents of the market competitiveness of firms in the local as well as international markets.