While driving we are on the lookout for hexagonal, not round or square-shaped stop signs, just as we know that inverted triangles indicate where traffic should yield. These are just a few of the thousands of standards that impact on our lives. The general benefits of a standard are safety, quality, interchangeability of parts or systems, and consistency across international borders. We use standards to achieve a level of safety, quality, and consistency in the products and processes that affect our lives. In short, standards make our lives safer, easier, and better.
Standards are also vital tools of industry and commerce.
They often provide the basis for buyer-seller transactions, hence they have tremendous impact on companies and nations, and even on the economic fabric of the world market. For example, as global trade increases and companies sell their products on foreign markets, they must ensure that their products comply with standards from those foreign countries. The variety of different standards for different markets means that some manufacturers must create dozens of variations of their products, each complying with slightly different standards. For the sake of shrinking these barriers to trade, international standards have been developed for use throughout the world. Most standards are developed by committees of volunteers, which can include members of industry, government, and the public.