Make Time For Standards

Your friends' eyes may glaze over when you talk about technical standards, but you and I both know that standards are relatable and exciting. Standards ensure that you get what you pay for, and most of us can relate to that.

Standards are the basis for the efficient production of reliable goods and trust between suppliers and manufacturers, and manufacturers and consumers. A standard like ASME’s Methods for the Performance Evaluation of Single-Axis Linear Positioning Systems means your friend can get a giant high-definition TV at a great price because the semiconductors inside it were made correctly, and faster and at less expense than previous generations. All thanks to the ASME standard for checking tools with nanoscale tolerances, eliminating the chipmaker’s downtime.  

At the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), we sometimes have difficulty explaining our role in standards. While the name clearly includes “standards,” NIST is not a standards-setting organization. Rather, we are a standards serving organization. We provide technical advice and leadership to standards development organizations such as ASME, and members like you give NIST researchers a window into the measurement needs of and trends in industry--and that informs our research. 

As a federal organization, NIST can play a technical long game that a single manufacturer is unlikely to risk. We develop unique and world’s-best measurement and analytical tools, capabilities, and expertise. For example, we have the largest deadweight machine in the world, used by organizations around the globe to calibrate instruments that measure large forces. As a research organization with a mission to serve the nation, we let science lead the way and we serve as a neutral resource for industry. Our technical solutions are evaluated on their scientific merit, and our outputs are for the betterment of all.

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While much of our research is for immediate application to current problems, including nanoscale metrology for the semiconductor industry, we also maintain a portfolio of fundamental research that often results in leaps of innovation. For example, today’s atomic clocks are based on Nobel-Prize-winning laser cooling experiments performed at NIST some 30 years ago. There’s no telling where today’s research will take us. 

And that brings me to the most exciting thing about standards: They accelerate innovation. When a marketplace has transparent expectations in the form of standards, new ideas become commercial products faster, with less trial and error. As the mechanized world has grown more complex in the century since NIST and ASME were founded, standards are ever more important to innovation.  

In the U.S. and many other countries, standards efforts are initiated by people like you, motivated by the technical challenges you face in your jobs and businesses. Standardization efforts are transparent and inclusive, with a diversity of viewpoints represented. New standards are generally accepted into practice by consensus, so that no single policy or organization dominates. ASME and similar organizations maintain libraries of standards and help to educate new generations of engineers about their importance.  

For standards that are especially important for emerging and advanced technologies, we must preserve good governance in standards development processes. We don’t want unfair gaming of the system that results in standards that are forced into existence, or a sacrifice of core principles that results in a competitive advantage for a single economy. For example, if standards for interoperability are not developed openly and then not widely accepted, the supply chains for parts may become choked.

We also don’t want a global fracturing of the standards development system that results in different sets of principles for different regions. As another example, if standards for quality and safety differ from country to country, manufacturers will find it harder to export their products. 

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You can help strengthen the industry-led standards-development process that has served us so well for so long. If you are already involved in standards work, I thank you for your service, and I hope you will persuade your colleagues to play a role as well. If you are not yet assisting in the standards-development process, I encourage you to join an ASME training, committee, or technical advisory group.  

Finally, I hope you will join me in expressing the need for investment in the nation’s science and technology enterprise. Organizations such as NIST, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and others have experienced flat or reduced budgets for years. If NIST cannot conduct and disseminate the measurement science that is the basis for fair, transparent, and effective standards, America’s ability to innovate will be diminished.

So please keep talking about standards so that others might understand their importance, and please support the process in any way you can. Your profession needs your voice, experience, and energy. We look forward to seeing you at the standards table.  

Laurie E. Locascio is the 17th director of NIST and the fourth Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology. In this role, she provides high-level oversight and direction of NIST.