Standards-a user's perspective

There are currently major changes underway within the process industries on how standards are viewed. There is a trend away from in-house company standards towards industry-wide standards. At the same time the standards themselves are taking a "prescriptive" rather than "descriptive" approach. Within Europe standards are being used to enforce legislation aimed at opening the market. This paper looks at a number of issues that surround the current standards environment and what it means to the end user.