Hello, my name is Daniel Massó Aguado,
I work as Knowledge Coordinator
for the Spanish Normalization Association
This video is about the importance of standardization.
There are norms or standards everywhere.
Although we may not be aware they are there,
they make our life much easier.
In the image we can see a credit card
which is accepted at any cashier,
thanks to the standards regulating their physical characteristics, among other things.
Conversely, the absence of a standard
frequently entails a rather obvious nuisance.
It is likely that those who have traveled abroad
have had problems to plug in their electrical appliances
in other countries.
In any environment we can recognize infinite standards
and, ultimately, standards accompany us
from birth until we die.
In this photo you can see that the standards for coffins and cribs
have almost the same code, they only differ in a zero
which, incidentally, is in the middle.
Philosophical considerations aside,
standards encompass infinite fields
and actually, it is hard to imagine
the development of any sector without standards.
But what are standards?
We will only describe
those usually known as formal standards.
These are documents with the following properties;
- They are voluntary, this is essential,
and are driven by sectors.
- They are accessible to the public,
so that anyone can buy or consult them.
- They are developed through consensus,
this is a magical word for us,
consensus is an agreement between all interested parties.
- An official body publishes them, in our case AENOR.
- And they are open to the comments of all parties concerned.
The comments can be made through many different ways,
but, currently, anyone can consult a draft standard
through a server, and make any comments they consider appropriate.
And why are standards made? What are the benefits of standards?
In fact standards are developed...
because they have benefits for the whole society.
Manufacturers can use them to apply economies of scale,
gaining access to markets,
optimizing the development of new products
plus, being able to reduce prices.
For consumers, in addition to getting lower prices,
they also help us to compare and establish
minimum quality and safety levels.
Public administrations also benefit,
standards help to simplify legislation processes
and, public procurement
and they also, serve as a tool
for developing public policies.
The economic impact of standardization is enormous.
Studies developed by the Department of Commerce
in the United States, show that standards
are behind more than 80% of the world's trade.
Besides that, further research shows
that standards have an impact on 1% of GDP in countries such as
Germany, France, United Kingdom or ours, Spain.
And who makes the standards?
Standards are made by standardization bodies,
Which are usually private organisations,
these are, additionally, regulated by legislations,
and, also, integrate representatives from the industry,
consumers and Public Administration.
There are national organisations,
at the same time, these national bodies,
are integrated in regional bodies
and, these are integrated into other larger, international ones.
The best known in Europe are...
the European Committee for Standardization, which we call CEN,
its electrotechnical equivalent,
the European Committee of Electrotechnical Standardization,
which we call CENELEC,
and its equivalent in telecommunications,
which is called ETSI.
Their international analogues are called ISO, IEC and ITU.
Curiously the oldest is ITU, 150 years old,
it is the telecommunications body.
Finally, standards are developed by technical committees,
within these committees there is a balanced representation,
of agents from the different sectors.
There are experts from manufacturing companies,
users, academy, laboratories,
different social agents; these can be NGOs, consumers,
Public Administration, etc.
Currently there are thousands of experts
working on development of standards around the world.
Only in Spain, the network of experts working on standards,
exceeds 11000 experts.
Conclusion, Standardization is a tool,
which is very versatile and tremendously useful for the whole society.
We encourage you to participate in standardization activities. Thank you.