Standardization day: apply technical standards to reduce costs and benefit consumers

Standardization is inherent to quality. It is estimated that between 5% and 25% the cost assumed by companies fluctuates for not producing with technical standards of standardization, depending on the line of business.

In order to enter the global market in a competitive way, the use of voluntary standards in industry and all productive and service sectors is essential. This is stated by Orlando Ardito, General Manager of the Association of International Electric Products Companies (EPEI-Peru).

“Those that conform to international standards, through standardization, will be more competitive,” he said.

Peru ranks 69th out of 140 countries in the World Economic Forum competitiveness ranking for the period 2015-2016, with an average score of 4.2 (on a scale of 1 to 7). One of the weaknesses of the country would be those linked directly or indirectly to the Quality Infrastructure (QI).

According to the manager of EPEI-Peru, both competitiveness, quality and standardization are closely related and cut across all sectors of the country’s economy. Although he affirms that the figures on the progress regarding the application of technical standards are delayed, he argued that “the country already has 20% of medium and large companies that use technical standards in their processes.”

48 hours from Standardization Day

In order that more companies can incorporate the use of technical standards in their processes, every October 14 World Standardization Day is celebrated, in order to make visible the importance of acting under legal standards.

Orland Ardito, general manager of EPEI-Peru, affirms that in order to be competitive in an increasingly demanding market, quality products and services are required that can function in a standardized manner anywhere in the world.

“Standardization arises from the need to respond to these demands,” says Ardito. He also explained that the standardization process allows unifying criteria to generate standards, which are drawn up by consensus and applied voluntarily by industry and companies in any country.

Producing with quality in Peru, using technical standards, represents a business for companies and a benefit for consumers. In this sense, the representative of EPEI-Peru highlighted that for the electrical products sector there is the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), an organization in charge of preparing and publishing international standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies, which was founded in 1906.

“Currently there are more than 700 standards that are related to the materials used in the construction of buildings, including those related to electrical installations,” said Ardito. He also said that 70% of what is sold in the electrical products market is informal, mainly of Chinese origin. This is due to the fact that many of the materials arrive in the country without any control and supervision over their quality.

The regulations establish the types of devices or materials to be used, their specifications and minimum distances, among other aspects, for which reason the general manager of EPEI-Peru affirmed that not abiding by the regulations can generate: risks of accidents such as electrocution, damage to health or death; damage to the infrastructure due to the use of products that do not have the necessary conditions or the regulations that guarantee the safety of people and equipment;

“115 years have passed since the installation of the IEC, which promotes the standardization of electrical products. Today with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, technology and digital transformation must be used to benefit standardization, in such a way that it has a positive impact for consumers, ”Ardito said.