(81by) Importance of Engineering Standards

Engineering standards are documents that establishes a rule or measure either by prescriptive or performance -based criteria for quality or level of performance for methods, processes and practices. Normally the standard is a minimum or optimal goal based on lessons learned from mistakes on the cover method, processes and practices. Standards are normally developed by a group of experts on the standard subject matter by consensus, after a review by the public and other stakeholders that could be affected by the standard. Standards for storing, handling and use of hazardous materials include standards from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) to OSHA Process Safety Management (PSM) standards. Hazardous material standards can be produced and/or adopted by government agents, national standards organizations, professional associations or societies, international standards organizations, or private companies. This paper discusses the importance of standards and how they changed the chemical industry over the last 40 years. The paper will discuss the standard development process and how you can influence standard development. The NFPA standard development process and OSHA PSM standard development process will be discussed.The difference between prescriptive and performance base standards will be discussed. How standards have improved the safety performance of the chemical industry will be discussed and how to improve you organization's performance by using standards to your advantage will be discussed.