The term “smart standards” refers to the strategy of digitally transforming voluntary standards and the standardization sector. Standards used to be produced in paper format, but are now available as PDF and XML files. Standards are on their way to becoming “full digital” objects that can be incorporated into users’ software and information systems with the aim of being machine-readable.
SMART STANDARDS
The SMART concept is an integral part of the strategy spearheaded by supranational standardization bodies (CEN CENELEC, IEC and ISO) with a time horizon midway through the 2020s. This concept’s acronym describes the process: Standard Machine Applicable Readable Transferable.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS WITH SMART STANDARDS?
Voluntary standards that have been elevated to “smart standards” offer several advantages:
- Save time by eliminating the need to visually scan through the standard
- No input or interpretation errors
- Easier-to-use content for a greater competitive advantage
- Shortened standards life cycle
- New 100% customer-oriented business models
SMART STANDARDS BY AFNOR : THE MARSS PROJECT
In France, AFNOR has embraced the Smart Standards concept by developing the MARSS project, which stands for Machine Applicable Readable Standard and Standardization. The objective is to cut out the manual process of reading through a voluntary standard and eliminate its potential errors, and instead transform the standard into a 100% digital object. This includes both technical standards (construction, automotive, energy, aviation, railways and electrotechnologies) and the main generic management standards, such as ISO 9001 on quality and ISO 14001 on the environment. Check out all the information about the MARSS project here, and feel free to contact us and become a beta-tester!
Project milestones
Determine customers' needs
Experiments
New standardization processes
New services
SMART STANDARDS: FOUR TRANSFORMATION LEVELS
The smart standard concept involves drilling down into the standard’s content, making that content machine-readable and preventing the standard from being open to interpretation. A finer-grained approach (term or sentence versus paragraph or document) is key to simplifying the process of clearing up different interpretations. By adding metadata, tags or attributes, the content can be used in digital tools. This strategy also invites stakeholders to consider the open source model and prompts them to give that model a role to play when establishing a consensus.
In France as part of its Cobaz platform, AFNOR Publishing allows you to take the first step towards the smart standard concept with its requirements identification solution. The Requirements service lets you quickly identify the key clauses within a standard that must be fulfilled, as well as the non-essential clauses that are worth knowing, such as permissions and recommendations.
SMART STANDARDS: PARTNERS AND COMPLEMENTARY INITIATIVES
- SMART (IEC, ISO)
- Smart Standards (CEN Cenelec)
- Idis Project (DIN and DKE, Germany)