Standardization for a Better Quality of Life

By Gurvinder Chopra | Roll number 3462 | Class of 1987

Every task — regardless of how often we do it — requires rules that define the scope, quality, and methods to be followed. If we don’t standardize these rules, we can’t have visibility over whether we’re ensuring quality and reducing human error.

Standardization can be applied to any process, any task or procedure that is relevant to the organization: taking over a sea-watch, answering the phone, doing preventive maintenance, doing payroll, taking down client information, keeping track of tasks, etc. Fundamentally, standardization means that your employees have an established, time-tested process to use.

Some benefits of standardization are as follows:

• Improves clarity — because a standard process will eliminate the need for guesswork or extra searching

• Guarantees quality — because work is done in a pre-defined, optimized way

• Promotes productivity — because your employees won’t need to ask around or comb documentation to get answer

• Boosts employee morale — because employees can take pride in having mastered the process and refined their skills

• Perfects customer service — because every ticket is handled in the best possible way

Standards: The importance of Standards is quite known to the industry. The value that Standards or Standardization bring to their users, be it the Regulatory bodies, the designers, manufacturers, service providers or the consumers of the products, is enormous

Quality as it means to customers: Quality plays a decisive role in satisfying the needs of customers and retaining their loyalty, so that they continue to buy the same products and, recommend those products to others as well. Quality builds trust and creates a loyal customer. Whether it is food safety or quality, clean & safe drinking water, safe & effective household products when used as intended, safe & healthy workplaces, road safety & effective performance of vehicles & transportation infrastructure, they all refer to national and International standards.

Standardization for employees manufacturing products or in a service industry: Through processes governed by standards, employees have a defined method to conduct efficient, high-quality work to accomplish their goals, providing them with a strong sense of ownership and increasing overall company morale.

Purpose of standardization for executives: Assessing and effectively managing the risks associated with cost of poor quality (COPQ) as well as internal failure costs constituted by rework, delays, re-designing, re-testing, downtime, and external failure costs – and the effect that these costs and delays have on customer loyalty, warranties and losses due to reduced sales needs to be understood by the executives of a company. Companies of national or international repute need to have suitable standards in place, ensuring that their products perform to the specifications and are able to generate confidence amongst their customers.

How disasters caused by some engineering failures, such as the sinking of the Titanic in 1912; the Walkway collapse in Hyatt Regency hotel in 1981; the Bhopal Gas tragedy in 1984; the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant explosion in 1986; and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 – have brought about changes in Standards, thus improving the quality of the products and equipment, and reducing the probability of failures and improving the overall safety of the product.

Learning Objectives:

1. Standardization needs to keep up with the pace of technology changes to ensure performance and safety, which determine the quality of any product, are always maintained.

2. As Quality is no longer the responsibility of any specific department, but rather, responsibility of everyone in the company producing the product, it becomes crucial for relevant Standards to be in place to help guide everyone including the manufacturers of components, products or equipment. This level of assurance indicates the final products available in the market are reliable and consumers can use those products for their convenience or for any intended purpose.

3. With Standardization in place, and by improving quality of the products and services, the quality of life can be improved. ▄