STANDARDISATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 69, 18 September 1936, Page 4

STANDARDISATION

WHAT IT SIGNIFIES HELP TO INDUSTRY When speaking ."• on the purpose, practice, and progress oi standardisation to yesterday's inaugural meeting of the New Zealand Standards Institute, which the present Government lias constituted a branch oi the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Mr. A. R. Galbraith, Ghristchurch City Engineer, who was appointed as chairman by the Government, remarked that the original New "Zealand. Standards Institute, after doing excellent work for the benefit of the. Dominion during the past six years, had now been taken over by the New Zealand Government and had become a branch of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. During its past career it had been seriously hampered in its praiseworthy labours by the lack of adequate financial support from interested parties who failed to realise the great value of the services-it was rendering to the industries and commerce of the nation. The New' Zealand Government, whilst recognising the good work done by the original institute, felt that its functions were of such manifest importance to the welfare of the community that they considered it should be under its own control, so had therefore decided to take over the parent body, and to continue and extend its sphere of activities as circumstances may' demand for the progress of the Dominion and of the Empire.

Mr. Galbraith pointed out the difficulty in defining "standardisation" and "standards" so that the ordinary layman should not get a wrong impression. The . following good definition had been given by the Carnegie Institute:—"A standard is simply a carefully thought-out method of performing a function or carefully-drawn specification covering an implement, or some article of stores, or of products. The standard method of doing anything is simply the. best method that can be devised at the time the standard is drawn. . . , Improvements in standards, are wanted and adopted whenever and wherever they are found. There is absolutely nothing in standardisation that precludes innovation. But to protect standardisation from changes that are not in the direction of improvements, certain safeguards are made. These safeguards protect standards from change for the sake of change. All that is demanded

. ..". is that a proposed change in a standard must be. scrutinised before its; adoption. _...

GREATEST GOOD FOR GREATEST •- NUMBER; . ■ The" greatest good for the greatest number was essentially the basis for economic standardisation. Standardisation was no bar to progress, being dynamic and not static. To ensure optimum results, the two vital factors of coercion and co-operation had to be carefully balanced. Standards to be truly effective should be voluntarily adopted, the only compelling force being that of. economic expediency. If this -were: lacking, legal, enforcement would be worse than useless.

"The important role which standardisation plays in the scheme of industrial evolution is not generally appreciated," said Mr. Galbraith. "The following are significant aspects of standardisation when carried out on a sound engineering basis:—(a) It enables buyer and seller to speak the same language, and'makes it possible for competitive sellers .to .do likewise, (b) In thus putting tenders on an easy comparable basis, it promotes fairness in competition both in domestic and in foreign trade. (c) It lowers unit cost to the public, by making mass production possible. (d) By simplifying the carrying of stocks, it makes deliveries quicker and prices lower, (ej It decreases litigation and other factors 'tending to disorganise industry, the burden of which ultimately falls upon the public, (f) It eliminates indecision both introduction and utilisation—a proline cause of inefficiency and waste. ..(g) It stabilises production'and employment by broadening the possible market, and my making it safe for the manufacturer to accumulate stock during the period of slack orders to an extent which would not be safe with an unstandardised product, (hj) By focusing on essentials, it decreases selling expense, one of {he serious problems of our economic system, (i) By concentrating on fewer lines;; It' enables more . thought and energy to be put into designs, so that they will-be more efficient and economipal. (j) By bringing out the need for new facts in order to determine what is best, and to secure agreement on most questions, it acts as a powerful stimulus to research and development, and it is thus in decided contrast to crystallisation resulting from fixity of mental attitude. (k) It is one of the principal means of getting the results of research and development into actual use in industries, (1) It helps to eliminate practices which are merely the result of accident or tradition, and which impede development, (m) By concentration on essentials, and the suppression of confusing elements intended merely for sales effect, it helps to base competition squarely on efficiency in production and distribution, and upon intrinsic merit of product." NO DRAB UNIFORMITY.

The usual objection to standardisation was that it was an unimaginative policy whereby everything would be reduced to a drab uniformity, men and women wearing utility clothes and eating tabloid meals. But standardisation, when put into practice, amply refuted such objection. Economic waste had been reduced and valuable savings had been made to industries. Examples were quoted showing the effect when simplification was effected on a national scale. The British steel trade, for instance, was saving a million a year, and yet all reasonable demands were met more efficiently—the non-essential having been merely pruned off. „.,.,. "In America the benefits of simplification have been so marked that a special Government Department has been formed to make the movement a national one, and American manufacturers have co-operated wholeheartedly under no less an authority than Herbert Hoover, and so reducing progressively the cost of production in that country," said Mr. Galbraith.. "In the lumber trade alone the economies effected run into tens of millions of dollars annually. To the general public, it is claimed that these savings are equivalent to a reduction of taxes. This method, by cutting down to fundamentals, has a direct arid immediate effect on the cost of. production, though it is difficult, from the very nature of the operation, to compute the savings accurately." There were no dearth of facts, concluded Mr. Galbraith, to prove that Government and local government departments throughout the Empire had furnished outstanding examples of the need of standardisation. "Past difficulties have sprung up from lack of intelligent co-ordination," he added. "Public authorities have gone their own way, issuing precise specifications to suit individual ideas, and differing no matter how trifling in detail, but quite enough to cause the manufacturing and commercial community considerable difficulty and expense in supplying their requirements." •'■ j