The Standards Department and Its Relationships to the IEEE Standards Process

THE PROCESS of developing voluntary electrical standards is one of the outstanding activities of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. The resulting IEEE standards give long-lasting and widespread benefits to Society members, and this is perhaps most evident in the Society's ``Color Book'' series. The Society standards activity also provides a significant service to other members of the IEEE. For instance, ten percent of all income from IEEE standards document sales in recent years has come from IAS standards [1]. This income production is ahead of the collective standards produced by any other IEEE society. (IEEE standards document sales in 1984 alone totalled $1.8 million.) As described in the IEEE Standards Manual [2], an IEEE standard represents a consensus of all interests concerned with the scope of the standard, provides a common ground for communication among those using the standard, and gives an authoritative reference to the state of technology. Each existing IEEE standard must be kept up to date by means of mandatory review at least every five years. The IEEE is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and IEEE standards are routinely submitted to ANSI for adoption as American National Standards.