Technical Documentation and Process

8

Standards and Reference Data

8.1 Introduction

Standardization usually starts within a company as a way to reduce costs associated with parts stocking, design drawings, training, and retraining of personnel. The next level might be a cooperative agreement between firms making similar equipment to use standardized dimensions, parts, and components. Competition, trade secrets, and the NIH factor (“not invented here”) often generate an atmosphere that prevents such an understanding. Enter the professional engineering society, which offers a forum for discussion between users and engineers while downplaying the commercial and business aspects.

To those outside the standardization process, the wheels of progress may appear to turn very slowly. ...