Standards to increase productivity

A standard is an agreed way of doing something. It could be about making a product, managing a process, delivering a service or supplying materials. Standards cover a wide range of activities undertaken by organizations and used by their customers.
Standards, both local and international, are developed to provide guidance to firms on how they can enhance lives. These standards provide guidance to ensure social responsibility in business. Some of the principles elaborated include accountability, transparency, ethical behaviour, respect for stakeholders' interests, and respect for the rule of law.
Standards support rapid economic growth in developing countries by outlining the best practices that enable them to avoid reinventing the wheel. Given the strong correlation between economic growth and urbanisation, standards are becoming increasingly important in making cities better places to live in.
From the environmental standpoint, standards help industries manage the environment by reducing waste. All over the world, everyone is now concerned about global warming. The effects are heavily felt by developing countries like Bangladesh. Implementation of international standards will minimize environmental hazards such as reduction of carbon emissions that cause global warming and occurrence of natural disasters such as droughts and floods. This brings about positive change in the lives of the people.
NATIONAL STANDARDS: An inherent strength of the standardisation process is that the standards are created by the stakeholders. Getting involved in this process can ensure significant advantages to business enterprises. The Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) has formulated over 5,000 standards on diverse fields ranging from food, chemicals, and textiles, to engineering and electronics, with a focus on international standards. Of them, 153 standards are declared mandatory by the government of Bangladesh. These standards are formulated by consensus through a network of technical committees, comprising different stakeholders like industry, researchers, development organisations, consumers and testing laboratories.
Conformity to international standards helps organisations, especially those from developing countries like ours, to access new markets emerging in a free and fair global trade. From the economic point of view, standards ensure positive change in those products that are made according to the specific international standards and can be marketed all over the world. Standards ensure transfer of technology from developed countries to developing countries, which would otherwise be difficult and costly for developing countries to adopt.
INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS: In International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), standards are developed by experts. By integrating an ISO standard into national regulation, governments can benefit from the opinion of experts without having to call on their expensive services directly.
International standards are strategic tools and guidelines to help and ensure that business operations are as efficient as possible. ISO has developed over 19,500 standards touching almost all aspects of daily life. When products and services conform to international standards, consumers can have confidence that those are safe, reliable and of good quality.
BENEFITS OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS: International Standards help harmonise technical specifications of products and services making industry more efficient and breaking down barriers to international trade. Conformity to International Standards helps reassure consumers that products are safe, efficient and friendly for the environment. They are intended to be shared with decision makers and stakeholders as concrete examples of the value of standards.
FOR BUSINESS: International Standards are strategic tools and guidelines to help companies tackle some of the most demanding challenges of modern business. They ensure that business operations are as efficient as possible, and boost productivity and help companies' access to new markets. Benefits include:
* Cost savings - International Standards help optimise operations and therefore improve the bottom line
"    Enhanced customer satisfaction - International Standards help improve quality, enhance customer satisfaction and increase sales
* Access to new markets - International Standards help prevent trade barriers and open up global markets
* Increased market share - International Standards help increase productivity and competitive advantage
* Environmental benefits - International Standards help reduce negative impacts on the environment
FOR SOCIETY: As mentioned earlier, ISO has over 19,500 standards touching almost all aspects of daily life. Consumers can have full confidence in products and services conforming to International Standards, For example, ISO's standards on road safety, toy safety and secure medical packaging are just some of those that help make the world a safer place.
To make sure that the benefits of International Standards are as broad as possible, ISO supports the involvement of consumers in standard development work with its committee on consumer policy.
International Standards on air, water and soil quality, on emissions of carbon and other gases and radiation and environmental aspects of products, contribute to efforts to preserve the environment and the health of citizens.
FOR GOVERNMENT: ISO standards are drawn on international expertise and experience and are therefore a vital resource for governments when developing public policy. National governments can use ISO standards to support public policy, for example, by referring to ISO standards in regulations. This has a number of benefits, including:
* Expert opinion - ISO standards are developed by experts. By integrating an ISO standard into national regulation, governments can benefit from the opinion of experts without having to call on their services directly.
* Opening up world trade - ISO standards are international and adopted by many governments. By integrating ISO standards into national regulation, governments help ensure that requirements for imports and exports are the same the world over and therefore facilitate the movement of goods, services and technologies from one country to another.
OPEN STANDARDS: Some organisations promote the idea of open standards. An open standard is a standard that is publicly available. There are some limitations to standards. To be effective, standards need to be revised frequently in response to rapidly changing circumstances. However, in practice, legislation tends not to keep up with the pace of change.
CONCLUSION: Standards motivate organisations to engage in a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation process for continual improvement. These put in place programmes and policies that make companies more successful. Better management breeds a happier employee who in turn engages in more productive work. Accreditation is to help people run their businesses more efficiently according to standards. In order to build greater success, business owners need to measure the successes they are already achieving as well as monitor and improve those areas where deficits are defined. By adopting all these standard practices, one can easily increase productivity in his/her organisation.
The writer is Director General, Bangladesh Accreditation Board.
[email protected]