Lesson 8: Global Engineering Practices

Disadvantages of Standards

While standards help facilitate trade and globalization. There are several concerns that come with standardization. For example, international standards are usually more conservative standards. For example, if a product must conform to several different cultural standards, the product must conform to the highest standards from each culture. While this allows entry into several countries and cultures, the additional cost to meet all standards may reduce the product's marketability when compared to a product built for a single market. Second, conforming to international standards lacks the appeal of trail blazing activity. Instead of establishing new boundaries and standards, one must follow those established. Third, at times there is an overwhelming enormity of information contained within standards. For example, at the Brown Bavarian Corporation of Switzerland one engineer's sole role task was to determine what tests needed to be performed at specified points of construction to ensure that hydro-electric turbines for Venezuela met specific construction and safety standards. The engineer had to follow stringent guidelines and explain the differences to BBC executives and the client. Finally, learning and presenting standards are difficult to present and teach to others without boredom setting in.