In What Way Is Standardisation Important to Both Production and Consumption - Essay Example

Standards Standardization Standards are formulated and written by a group of people who are authorised and qualified in a given area of study. The composition of such a group is bound include industry manufacturers, academicians, experts and consumers. This group can then be referred to as a committee. It is the duty of the committee to develop technical or managerial specifications based on agreed principles among the concerned parties. Other parties that could be included within the committee may be trade unions, public authorities and non-governmental organizations. It is very essential that consumers to be party to that committee because it is upon them that the real impact of the product will be felt. This impact could either be positive or negative. In fact, this would give an organisation the manner in which to effectively and urgently respond to customer complaints or compliments. The procedure of standardisation is normally carried out by autonomous bodies which may be having their spheres of influence at a departmental, national, regional or international level. Consumer safety and health standards are normally the basic and most fundamental concern in all countries. This is because the set standards ensure the quality of the products delivered for consumption. The result of this is that it not only fulfils the desire of a product by the citizens but also stamps their trust in the same. Standards enhance the competitiveness of a product because it brings to light the most common requirements on which a particular market product is based. This facilitates innovation and also ensures that equitable market systems are realized. One chief thing that international standards help in is the interoperability of the systems involved, more so in the domain of ICT. It is evident to all that we live in digitally driven society, and so the ICT system solutions are used in almost every economic sector, as well as our daily lives. In this regard, for the systems to be able to effectively communicate with one another, they must be interoperable. Some standards, like the BS 18477, normally offer protection of the consumers. This is because some consumers are bound to vulnerability as a result of physical disability, sickness, broken relationship like bereavement or even a mental condition that adversely affects them. These factors can possibly put a customer in a great risk when buying a product or a service. Standards play a role in tackling the side-effects that a product could cause upon the consumer. These side-effects may be referred to as detriments. Such detriments may be an accident or an injury; deprivation or financial loss; disappointment or anxiety and stress. By offering protection against these, standards go a long way in winning the trust of the consumers. Standards are very effective in international trade because they help to reduce the incongruence and asymmetries between the buyer and the seller. It does this by providing an autonomous objective set of guidelines and criteria. However, its economic benefit can vary significantly from one nation to another or from a given region to the next (Mitchell, 2001, pp. 288). This variance may depend upon the prevailing legislations in a particular country, and the region of jurisdiction of the body in charge of administering the standardization procedures. Furthermore, standards are not only beneficial to the consumers and the industry, but they also provide an invaluable benefit to the environment. It is common knowledge today that issues that involve the environment and the conservation thereof have gained not only a local attention but also international. It is the duty of man to protect and conserve the environment upon which he depends. Thus, the increasing awareness and the need to conserve the environment forces the producers to reduce the toxic load released into it for the betterment of the entire ecosystem. For example, the very recent standards for a universal phone charger, added to the fact that it provides convenience to millions of people who can afford it by allowing them to use their charger on any kind of phone, will definitely cut down on waste and cost. This would enable the producers or the manufacturers to sell mobile devices and chargers separately. In looking at the innovative aspect of standards, some questions arise. They may include: How does a company’s innovation change as the company grows big and matures? Are there circumstances in which a pattern generally associated with successful innovation can be more likely to be associated with its failure? Under what circumstances will a newly available technology, rather than the market, be the critical impetus for change? At what times can the concentration of the productivity gains be at its peak in an organisation or firm? Under what situations does this strategy instead give rise to instability and cause a potential for crisis in an organization? Such questions are intriguing. Production capabilities and organizational features as far as standards are concerned, elicit change as the units evolve. This results in the modelling related designs and patterns competitively within a given unit. In times past, the meaning of ‘urban lifestyles’ with regards to standardization has changed from a fairly level prerogative of social status to a very rigorous pursuit of cultural capital. For both men and women, such a pursuit encourages many various forms of cultural utility. Within the cities and urban centres, it encourages the growth of both profit-making and non-profit making organisations (Galloway, 1992, pp. 197). This is attributed to the fact that a number of service-based industries come up for the benefit of the consumers. Urban lifestyle more so reflects such changes. Both at work and at leisure, the different groups of people in a given country have had a singular effect on defining urban cultures. Further, industries based on some specific design and production of goods for specific lifestyles has now been seen to be contributing to a given city’s overall economic growth. Given this paradigm shift, new systems of lifestyles have risen which includes the building of boutiques, art stores and restaurants. Emotional Labour Considering the urban lifestyles on the part of city governments has encouraged strategies that make beautiful and also focus on the visual consumption of public space. However, this has been marked by an increase in the competition to control such public spaces. These changes in the material and symbolic fabric of cities have changed the previous conceptions of the labour offered in the urban places. Cities are no longer seen as landscapes of production. While most urban consumption still involves the satisfaction of everyday needs, many new urban consumption spaces relate to the trending patterns of leisure, travel and culture (Marco, 2005, pp 52). This again raises several questions. First, how can the economic viability of an urban centre be assessed? They aim to attract a mobile public that could easily go elsewhere. Further, these cities create mainly low-wage jobs, which may be good when used as the entry-points for a low-skilled labour force. It is also important to address the fact that standardization is a tool for transparency and positive progress against any odd that could be present. This is partly because it guarantees the protection of a design and the manufacture of safe products (Weber, 1995, pp. 43). By doing so, it ensures that only products that conform and are suitable to the consumers’ expectations are produced and dispensed into the market. Open Innovation When a major product innovation appears, performance criteria are typically vague and little understood. Because standards given in that particular area may bring to light more intimate understanding of the performance requirements, users may play a major role in suggesting the ultimate form of the innovation as well as the need for the same. For example, Kenneth Knight once showed that three-quarters of the computer models which were built between 1944 and 1950 were developed by the consumers. It is plausible that the diversity and the uncertainty of the performance requirements for new products give an advantage in their innovation. This can be achieved with proper flexible technical approaches and good technical communications. Indeed, historical evidence supports this hypothesis. For example, new enterprises in standardization led to the application of the semiconductor technology. This practice was then deployed in well established firms. This was so because the economies of scale have not been made of prime importance. Products have changed so rapidly that production technology designed for a particular product is rapidly made obsolete (Mascelli, 1965, pp. 20). If it is true that the nature and the goals of an industrial unit’s innovations change as that unit matures from pioneering to large-scale producer, it does primarily imply that the characteristics of innovation as production processes as well as primary competitive issues differ. As a unit moves toward a large scale production, the goals of its innovations change from ill-defined and uncertain targets to a well-articulated design objectives, thanks to standardization measures. The stimulus for innovation changes as a unit matures and gains more market within the consumers’ arena. In its initial fluid stage, market needs are ill-defined and can only be put down in a very wide perspective of ambiguity; and the relevant technologies are as yet very little explored. So there are two sources of ambiguities about the relevance of any particular program of research and development – target uncertainty and technical uncertainty. Cultural strategies of economic redevelopment can take many different forms, from the encouragement of historic preservation to creating new museums and tourist zones. This is at times referred to as the heritage industry (Wheeler, 2005, pp. 120). In one hand, these strategies reflect an absence of traditional resources for competing for capital investment and jobs. On the other hand, they represent a cultural shift in the advancement of the industrial societies and a corresponding inflation of image production. These cultural strategies of redevelopment portray the growing importance of a symbolic economy which is based on abstract products. These products may include finances, culture and information. In this sense, culture here refers to music, art and any consumables. In conclusion, standardisation plays the role of acting as a tool for exchange. In the light of this, it allows market development by harmonising the rules and the codes of practice. In doing this, it brings down the technical barriers to trade, either locally or internationally. Also it allows the clarification of transaction through helping to define the needs and thereby optimising the consumer/producer relations. This it does by providing a reference for enhancing products and services. References Galloway, P., (1992). A guide to standards, A comparative analysis between profit and non-profit making organisations, retrieved on May 2015 from, Marco, M., 2005. Standards and innovation. The logistics of standards. New York: Simon and Schuster. Mascelli, J. V., 1965. Measurements and standards. United States of America: Silman James Press Mitchell, C. P., 2001. Manufacturing and standards. Connecticut: Greenwood Printing Press. Weber, R., 1995. Standards. United States of America: Cambridge University Press. Wheeler, P., 2005. The essence of standards to business. Great Britain: Focal Press. Read More