However, most design projects just are not that
challenging or different from what has been done in
the past. Historically, such information was
carefully guarded and was often kept secret. With
the passage of time, however, these privately
developed methods of solving design problems became
common knowledge, ever more firmly established.
Eventually they evolved into published standards of
practice. Some government entities, acting under
their general duty to preserve general welfare and
to protect life and property from harm, added the
standards to their legal bases.
The need for codes and standards
Standardization of parts within a particular
manufacturing company to ensure interchangeability
is only one part of the industrial production
problem. The other part is compatibility. What
happens when parts from one company, working to
their standards, have to be combined with parts from
another company, working to their standards? Will
parts from company A fit with parts from company B?
Yes, but only if the parts are compatible. In other
words, the standards of the two companies must be
the same.
Purposes and objectives of codes and standards
The protection of general welfare is one of the
common reasons for the establishment of a government
agency. The purpose of codes is to assist that
government agency in meeting its obligation to
protect the general welfare of the population it
serves. The objectives of codes are to prevent
damage to property and injury to or loss of life by
persons. These objectives are accomplished by
applying accumulated knowledge to the avoidance,
reduction, or elimination of definable hazards.
Before going any further, the reader needs to
understand the differences between "codes" and
"standards". Which items are codes and which are
standards? One of the several dictionary definitions
for "code" is "any set of standards set forth and
enforced by a local government for the protection of
public safety, health, etc., as in the structural
safety of buildings (building code), health
requirements for plumbing, ventilation, etc.
(sanitary or health code), and the specifications
for fire escapes or exits (fire code)". "Standard"
is defined as "something considered by an authority
or by general consent as a basis of comparison; an
approved model".
As a practical matter, codes tell the user what
to do and when and under what circumstances to do
it. Codes are often legal requirements that are
adopted by local jurisdictions that then enforce
their provisions. Standards tell the user how to do
it and are usually regarded only as recommendations
that do not have the force of law.
As noted in the definition for code, standards
are frequently collected as reference information
when codes are being prepared. It is common for
sections of a local code to refer to nationally
recognized standards. In many instances, entire
sections of the standards are adopted into the code
by reference, and then become legally enforceable.
How standards develop
Whenever a new field of economic activity emerges,
inventors and entrepreneurs scramble to get into the
market, using a wide variety of approaches. After a
while the chaos decreases, and a consensus begins to
form as to what constitutes "good practice" for that
economic activity.
As an industry matures, more and more companies
get involved as suppliers, subcontractors,
assemblers, and so forth. Establishing national
trade practices is the next step in the standards
development process. This is usually done through
special institutions like the American National
Standards Institute (ANSI), which provides the
necessary forum. A sponsoring trade association will
request that ANSI review its standard. A review
group is then formed that includes members of many
groups other than the industry, itself. This expands
the area of consensus and is an essential feature of
the ANSI process.
ANSI circulates copies of the proposed standard
to all interested parties, seeking comments. A time
frame is set up for receipt of comments, after which
a Board of Standards Review considers the comments
and makes what it considers necessary changes. After
more reviews, the standard is finally issued and
published by ANSI, listed in their catalog, and
available to anyone who wishes to purchase a copy.
A similar process is used by the International
Standards Organization (ISO), which began to prepare
an extensive set of worldwide standards in 1996.
One of the key features of the ANSI system is the
unrestricted availability of its standards. Company,
trade, or other proprietary standards may not be
available to anyone outside that company or trade,
but ANSI standards are available to everyone. With
the wide consensus format and easy accessibility,
there is no reason for designers to avoid the step
of searching for and collecting any and all
standards applicable to their particular projects.
Types of codes
There are two broad types of codes: performance
codes and specification or prescriptive codes.
Performance codes state their regulations in the
form of what the specific requirement is supposed to
achieve, not what method is to be used to achieve
it. The emphasis is on the result, not on how the
result is obtained. Specification or prescriptive
codes state their requirements in terms of specific
details and leave no discretion to the designer.
There are many of each type in use.
Trade codes relate to several public
welfare concerns. For example, the plumbing,
ventilation, and sanitation codes relate to health.
The electrical codes relate to property damage and
personal injury. Building codes treat structural
requirements that ensure adequate resistance to
applied loads. Mechanical codes are involved with
both proper component strength and avoidance of
personal injury hazards. All of these codes, and
several others, provide detailed guidance to
designers of buildings and equipment that will be
constructed, installed, operated, or maintained by
persons skilled in those particular trades.
Safety codes, on the other hand, treat
only the safety aspects of a particular entity. The
safety codes sets forth detailed requirements for
safety as it relates to buildings.
Professional society codes have been
developed, and several have wide acceptance. The
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
publishes the Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, which
have been used as a design standard for many
decades. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers (IEEE) publishes a series of books that
codify recommended good practices in various areas
of their discipline. The Society of Automotive
Engineers (SAE) publishes hundreds of standards
relating to the design and safety requirements for
vehicles and their appurtenances. The American
Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) publishes
thousands of standards relating to materials and the
methods of testing to ensure compliance with the
requirements of the standards.
Statutory codes are those prepared and
adopted by some governmental agency, local, stale,
or federal. They have the force of law and contain
enforcement provisions, complete with license
requirements and penalties for violations. There are
literally thousands of these, each applicable within
its geographical area of jurisdiction.
Regulations. Laws passed by legislatures
are written in general and often vague language. To
implement the collective wisdom of the lawmakers,
the agency staff then comes in to write the
regulations that spell out the details.
Types of standards
Proprietary (in-house) standards are prepared
by individual companies for their own use. They
usually establish tolerances for various physical
factors such as dimensions, fits, forms, and
finishes for in-house production. When outsourcing
is used, the purchasing department will usually use
the in-house standards in the terms and conditions
of the order.
Quality assurance provisions are often in-house
standards, but currently many are being based on the
requirements of ISO 9000. Operating procedures for
material review boards are commonly based on
in-house standards. It is assumed that designers, as
a function of their jobs, are intimately familiar
with their own employer’s standards.
Government specification standards for
federal, state, and local entities involve literally
thousands of documents. Because government purchases
involve such a huge portion of the national economy,
it is important that designers become familiar with
standards applicable to this enormous market
segment. To make certain that the purchasing agency
gets precisely the product it wants, the
specifications are drawn up in elaborate detail.
Failure to comply with the specifications is cause
for rejection of the seller’s offer, and there are
often stringent inspection, certification, and
documentation requirements included.
It is important for designers to note that
government specifications, particularly Federal
specifications, contain a section that sets forth
other documents that are incorporated by reference
into the body of the primary document. These other
documents are usually federal specifications,
federal and military standards, and applicable
industrial or commercial standards. The MIL
standards and Handbooks for a particular product
line should be a basic pan of the library of any
designers working in the government supply area.
Product definition standards are published
by the National Institute of Standards and
Technology under procedures of the Department of
Commerce. It establishes the grading rules, names of
specific varieties of soft wood, and sets the
uniform lumber sizes for this very commonly used
material.
Commercial standards (denoted by the
letters CS) are published by the Commerce Department
for articles considered to be commodities.
Commingling of such items is commonplace, and
products of several suppliers may be mixed together
by vendors. The result can be substantial variations
in quality. To provide a uniform basis for fair
competition, the Commercial Standards set forth test
methods, ratings, certifications, and labeling
requirements. Testing and certification standards
are developed for use by designers, quality
assurance agencies, industries, and testing
laboratories.
International standards have been
proliferating rapidly for the past two decades. This
has been in response to the demands of an
increasingly global economy for uniformity,
compatibility, and inter-changeability demands for
which standards are ideally suited.
Beginning in 1987, the International Standards
Organization (ISO) attacked one of the most serious
international standardization problems, that of
quality assurance and control. These efforts
resulted in the publication of the ISO 9000 Standard
for Quality Management. This has been followed by
ISO 14000 for Environmental Management Standards,
which is directed at international environmental
problems.
The ISO has several Technical Committees (TC)
that publish handbooks and standards in their
particular fields. Examples are the ISO Standards
Handbooks on Mechanical Vibration and Shock,
Statistical Methods for Quality Control, and
Acoustics. All of these provide valuable information
for designers of products intended for the
international market.
Codes and standards preparation organizations
U.S. Government Documents. For Federal
government procurement items, other than for the
Department of Defense, the Office of Federal Supply
Services of the General Services Administration
issues the Index of Federal Specifications,
Standards and Commercial Item Descriptions every
April.
The American National Standards Institute also
publishes a catalog of all their publications and
distributes catalogs of standards published by 38
other ISO member organizations. They also distribute
ASTM and ISO standards and English language editions
of Japanese Standards, Handbooks, and Materials Data
Books. ANSI does not handle publications of the
British Standards Institute or the standards
organizations in Germany and France.
As mentioned previously, there are many
organizations that act as sponsors for the standards
that ANSI prepares under their consensus format. The
sponsors are good sources for information on
forthcoming changes in standards and should be
consulted by designers wishing to avoid last-minute
surprises. Listings in the ANSI catalog will have
the acronym for the sponsor given after the ANSI
symbol. The field of interest of each sponsor is
usually obvious from the name of the organization.
Designer’s responsibility
As soon as a designer has been able to establish a
solid definition of the problem at hand, and to
formulate a promising solution to it, the next
logical step is to begin the collection of available
reference materials such as codes and standards.
This is a key part of the background phase of the
design effort. Awareness of the existence and
applicability of codes and standards is a major
responsibility of the designer.
One of the designer’s responsibilities in the
background phase is to make certain that the
collection of reference codes and standards is both
complete and comprehensive. Considering the enormous
amount of information available, and the ease of
access to it, this can be a formidable task.
However, a designer’s failure to acquire a complete
and comprehensive collection of applicable standards
is ill advised in today’s litigious environment. In
addition, failure of the designer to meet the
requirements set forth in the standards can be
considered professional malpractice.
