STANDARDISATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23595, 3 September 1938, Page 12

STANDARDISATION

A somewhat sonorous word, "standardisation " suggests machinery. It connotes, indeed, a product of the machine age in which we live. Probably many people are only vaguely aware of the existence of the New Zealand Standards Institute, of its place within the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and of the functions of its advisory council. A perusal of the institute's latest, annual report is illuminating in that it tells of the value and importance of " a broad economic activity"—a work for which it is claimed that, if adequately developed, it will secure a greatly increased return from the application of the effort and energy of its people to the resources of the Dominion, and so advance the economic and social welfare of all sections of the community. The logical inference is that the New Zealand Standards Institute is performing for this country a service of high importance. Its report furnishes the evidence on that point, together with a detailed explanation of its modus operandi. Twelve years ago the Imperial Conference pronounced in favour of the establishment of uniform standard specifications, where practicable, in the common interests of the Empire countries, and the New Zealand Standards Institute is taking its part in a mutual collaboration to this end with the standards organisations in other countries within the Empire. The advance of the principle of uniform Empire standards is regarded as a consideration of prime importance, subject to proper regard for the special requirements of local conditions and circumstances. It is pointed out that adherence to national standards by public authorities and private agencies as a basis for purchasing supplies required for the same purpose eliminates the multiplicity of unnecessary variations in specifications to which the suppliers are called upon to adhere. And if the same principle is carried to the point of securing common standards by Empire countries, it is apparent that the facility thus provided for concentration of production upon a minimum number of types and patterns must greatly reduce production costs, and so reduce also the number of types and classes of equipment that need be stocked by distributors as to effect large savings in overhead charges, while at the same time affording better service to users. Further, it is claimed that the careful scrutiny, to which the provisions of all specifications are subjected by competent and representative interests before being finally adopted ensures the production' and use of the most suitable and efficient equipment for given purposes. In New Zealand, the institute reports, the obvious waste is evident which arises from lack of standards in industry, resulting in the manufacture of a superfluous diversity of types of goods and duplication of stocks. But the interests concerned have been quick, it is recorded, to recognise the benefits to be derived from the application of the standard principle. The portion of the report devoted to the activities of the technical committees indicates the scoDe of investigation that is pursued, standard specifications having been examined in respect of a long list of products, ranging from plumbing and electrical supplies to cream cans, fencing wire, and woolpacks. The principle of purchasing supplies on the basis of standards is so widely accepted in most countries that any departure from it has come to be regarded as a violation of a regular procedure. Apparently there is reliable authority for the statement that as a result of the adoption of standards within the steel industry in the United Kingdom a saving of over a million a year has been effected. The cumulative evidence 1 of the value of standardisation in respect of specifications seems indeed to be overwhelming. Standards are commended as providing a common language for buyer and seller. The process of specialised mass production has resulted in the placing of such an amazing array and complexity of goods on the consumer market that some method to assist the purchaser to compare their characteristics, quality, utility, and value has seemed essential to the judicious spending of income. It is part of the plan of operations with which the standard organisations are concerned that periodical review and revision shall be undertaken to prevent " crystallisation," and to ensure that specifications shall be kept abreast of progress.