Bert Moore

As a user of AIDC technology, you benefit from standards every day. Some standards are as simple as being able to plug a device into a wall outlet (we're talking about the shape, size and position of the prongs as well as the current) or something as complex as being able to interface the device with a host computer.

But where do standards come from? Who creates them? Are there different kinds of standards?

First, understand that there are different types of standards. There are international, national, industry-specific, and even corporate standards.

International standards are the highest level of standards. They're created by international organizations made up of standards bodies representing the participating countries.

There are a number of international standards bodies such as the International Organization for Standards (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Because there is some overlap between the purviews of ISO and IEC, they have formed a joint working committee JTC-1, to handle these matters. Many AIDC standards are being developed within JTC-1 as well as in ISO committees.

Representatives of national standards organizations sit on these international standards committees. In the U.S., that body is usually the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) although National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) is sometimes the representative. NIST used to be the National Bureau of Standards (NIST). Representatives are nominated from among those individuals who sit on the Task Groups or Work Groups that do the real work. These individuals are typically volunteers from vendor or user companies.

There are also pan-national organizations such as CEN, the Commission for European Normalisation (Standards), which is working to resolve differences between national standards within the European Community.

National standards are created in the same way: by a group of people getting together to solve a problem, whether it's a technology or application question. One example is ANSI MH10 SBC-8 (Subcommittee 8) which deals with markings on unit loads and transport packages. This committee has developed standards for linear bar code and two-dimensional symbols on shipping labels, is responsible for the administration of the Data/Application Identifier standard, and is now addressing the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags for shipment identification and information.

Industry standards are created to address the specific needs of a particular business sector, whether it's automotive, electronics, government, or retail. These days, many of these sectors overlap and it's not unusual to find representatives of one industry's standards group participating in other organizations' standards development. Many of these industry groups are also accredited by ANSI to develop national standards. AIM is one such organization (as a national industry trade association), the Uniform Code Council (UCC), which is a unique entity in its scope, is another. Industry standards sometimes serve as the model for national standards.

Corporate standards, though they have no "official" status outside the company, are also an essential component in the standards world. Ideally, each level of standard references a higher level of standard so a corporate standard would define how the industry, national or international standard would be applied within the company's various applications.

Standards can also be segmented according to whether they apply to the technology, the data content or structure, or the application of the other two types of standards.

A symbology specification, for example, is a technology standard. It defines the rules for a specific bar code symbology. A data standard would describe the data to be encoded, for example, a U.P.C. number or the ANSI MH10.8.2 Data/Application Identifiers that indicate the length, nature (numeric or alphanumeric) and intended use of the data in that field. Then there are application standards such as the ANSI MH10.8 for shipping labels or the ANSI MH10.8.3 for how to use two-dimensional symbols with shipping labels.

Most people think that there's some arcane "inner circle" of technocrats that create standards – if they think about it at all. Except for some of the most abstruse technical specifications, that's simply not true. The truth is that the "inner circle" is open to anyone with the desire (and corporate support) to work at developing standards that address their business needs.

It's relatively easy for you to take part in your own industry standards committees. All you have to do is call your trade association's headquarters (or visit their web site) and ask. But how do you influence national and international standards? Pretty much the same way. You volunteer. As unlikely as it might sound, many existing high level standards committees are actually begging for user representation. They want to know what you think, how you need to use the technologies, what problems you need to solve.