Levels of Standards
Various levels of standards are:
- Individual Level Standards
- Industry-wise Standards
- International Level Standards
Individual Level Standards
A builder or contractor or a real estate company lays down their own specifications to suit the special needs of a house, a dam, a bridge.
A corporate, a body, a government department sets their own rules and regulations (standard procedures)
A private sector company or a factory produces certain items of spare parts with their own standards. For example MORTEIN Mosquito repelling machine will have its own standard for which the refill bottle of MORTEIN make only suits.
The examples described above belong to the Individual level standards. Usually, these will have qualitative factors like fragrance of perfume, colour preferences, finish of surfaces, fashions, etc. Such individual level standards deal essentially with non-repetitive manufacturing or short term productions or batch production.
Industry-wise Standards
The standardization activity is undertaken at the industry level, particularly when advances are made by an industry in any particular field of knowledge
International Level Standards
The ultimate goal of standardisation should be to achieve international standards in all technical matters related to economic activities between nations. In the year 1947 when ISI was born, International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) was also instituted. It comprises over 70 national organisations including ISI and is a body responsible for general standardization work at International level. Some other important bodies which specialize in specific areas are:
Organisation for Legal Metrology
To standardise the practices and procedures in measurement.
International Conference on Weights and Measures
To define and standardise the units of measurement of physical quantities, weights and measures.
Codex Alimentarious Commission (CAC)
To set up jointly by Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and World Health Organisation (WHO) - and to define and compile food standards for universal application.