KAN Report 38

	The relevance of generic standards: the example of machine safety, 09/2006, G. Çakir/A. Çakir (638 KB)
Bookmarks in the pdf file link directly to the individual chapters.

Summary

Generic standards promote order and coherence within the body of standards. They enable an issue relevant to several areas of standardization to be governed at a higher level: in mathematical terms, to be placed outside the brackets. KAN Report 38 examined the relevance of generic standards, with machine safety serving as an example, and identified the benefits for the system of standardization. In addition, the report presents lists of standards with generic content.

In the light of increasingly scarce resources, it is important that both the development and updating of standards, and their application and administration, be managed in the most efficient and user-friendly way possible. Generic standards can contribute to this objective. Examples of generic standards are the Type A and B standards in the field of machine safety, and the cross-sector ergonomics standards.

The benefits of generic standards lie primarily in the clarity and consistency of the body of standards and in the avoidance of duplicate provisions. Generic standards enhance efficacy in the development of product standards, shorten their development time, and in particular increase the quality of the standards. During product development, they are particularly helpful when appropriate product-specific standards do not exist.