Why our customers use standards

Standards, best practices, etc. Have you heard of them but don't yet understand how they add value for your Organisation? Do you already use certain standards within your Organisation, but are not familiar with what else standards have to offer?

Whether you are looking for better ways to collaborate with stakeholders, or are aiming for an objective measure to compare products, standards can help you with that.  

What are standards? What do you use standards for? And why are they important? Be inspired by these specialists, the users of standards:  

Speaking are:

• Nele Cattoor of textile group Beaulieu
• Gunter Mathieu of drinking water company The Water Group
• Vera De Glas of protective clothing manufacturer Sioen  
• Rony Haentjens of Niko, wholesaler of switches and sockets  
• Hervé Camerlynck of Febelcem, the Federation of the Belgian Cement Industry  

• Bernard Fieremans of packaging specialist Gaasch Packaging

What are standards?

‍

Standards are best practices. They describe the best manner in which to do something. Our standards users each interpret this in their own way. Nele: "A standard is a mutual agreement between stakeholders with rules for products, management, or processes." So, a standard is a document containing technical requirements that a product or service must meet. "True," Vera adds. "A standard defines quality requirements, safety requirements, and reliability requirements."

• Nele, Gunter, Vera, Bernard and Rony explain how they see standards.

‍

‍

What do you use standards for?

‍

Standards are often used throughout an Organisation. "Right from the start of a project, standards are predefined. This allows us to test them throughout the development process. But we also use standards in our production department. For example, standards with machine guidelines. At management level, management standards such as ISO 9001 or ISO 14000 are useful," says Rony. Gunter also uses standards on a daily basis: "We write technical requirements for drinking water materials, for example. Standards are our first starting point to create a new technical requirement."

• Rony, Gunter and Bernard talk about what they use standards for.

‍

‍

Why are standards important?

‍

All users agreethat standards are important. "Standards create a common language. They provide support," believes Nele. "This common language of standards promotes dialogue with other sectors," Hervé confirms. "There is a lot of expertise in standards. Developing standards is a process that takes years. A lot of experts work on them. Not using standards would be a waste. After all, all that expertise is contained in these documents," adds Rony.

• Nele, Hervé and Rony explain why standards matter in their Organisation.

‍

‍

Standards are also essential for Vera, Bernard, and Gunter. Vera: "Knowledge of standards is extremely important for us because our products are marketed according to standards. A thorough and clear knowledge of standards is therefore crucial for our market and our Organisation." Gunter concludes, "We consider the use of standards very important because they ensure that we set the bar for everyone. This allows us to objectively evaluate and quantify the products offered in relation to each other."

• Vera, Bernard and Gunter explain why standards are essential to them.

‍

‍

Also getting started with standards?

Discover the most commonly used management systems.

‍^{Management Systems}

Purchase standards in our standards platform.

^{Buying standards}

‍