Crash test dummy gains international acceptance Consumers

Transcription

ISO Focus
The Magazine of the International Organization for Standardization
Volume 1, No. 7, July-August 2004, ISSN 1729-8709
Safe
machinery
saves
Crash test dummy
gains international acceptance
Consumers want
standards and the law
Contents
1
Comment Alfred Sutter, Chair ISO/TC 199, Safety of
machinery – Preparing safety for all
2
World Scene
Highlights of events from around the world
3
ISO Scene
Highlights of news and developments from ISO members
4
Guest View
By Mr. Helmut Reuter, CEO of the Rieter Group, Winterthur,
Switzerland
ISO Focus is published 11 times
7
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ISSN 1729-8709
Printed in Switzerland
Cover photo : ISO
ISO Focus July-August 2004
Safe machinery saves lives
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Putting machine safety in a global perspective
Safety pays: designing machines that care
Universal and individual risk
Easy to operate: earth-moving machinery
Hazards are everywhere: how to achieve functional safety
Vibration and shock affect people’s lives
Radical improvements in crane safety
Ergonomics : the road to health, safety and efficiency
Burning a trail ahead in protective clothing
Reducing the risk of hearing damage
The value of statistical techniques
34 Developments and Initiatives
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Automobile safety – a dummy that can take it all
Best practice for information security
Legislation and standards – partners in consumer protection
The unrelenting advance of video compression
ISO to go ahead with guidelines for social responsibility
45 Coming up
Comment
Preparing safety for all
S
afety in the workplace entails
a complex interaction – and
reaction – between the human,
machine and the work environment.
Not only is this concept important
to ensuring the safety and health of
employees, but it is the foundation
of the standardization process for
machine safety. The slogan “ Do it
once – do it right – do it internationally ” has in this instance to be
complemented by “ Do it right from
the beginning ” – meaning that the
concept of safety must be integrated
into the machinery at the design
stage. The result of this slogan saves
companies both time and money and,
at the same time, ensures employees
the safety and comfort of a workerfriendly environment.
In order to implement a systemic approach to standardization
in machine safety, a standardization
concept with horizontal and vertical standards is needed to help the
designer with the methodology or giving decision guidance for designing a
safe machine. While horizontal standards describe the safety philosophy
and methodology, verticial standards,
on the other hand, are intended for
specific safety aspects such as safety
distances, general noise aspects and
application of ergonomic principles,
or products that can be used in different machines, e.g. safe control
systems, two-hand control systems,
and interlocking devices.
Internationally, work began
when ISO technical committee
ISO/TC 199, Safety of machinery,
was created in 1991 upon the initiative of the European Committee for
Standardization (CEN), represented
by Paul Makin, who became its first
chair.
It is to his credit that the
horizontal European standards were
developed as ISO technical reports
and subsequently became ISO stan-
dards. Thanks to that, international
work on safety of machinery is known
in an increasing number of countries
and becoming ever more important
internationally.
“ Safety must be
integrated into
the machinery
at the design stage.”
of our working groups has prepared a
draft to be circulated soon for inquiry
within the technical committee.
The coming decade will be
dedicated to the revision of all other
ISO/TC 199 standards, meaning that
they will gain further international
acceptance but maintain at the same
time their function within European
legislation. This will be a considerable challenge for the experts in the
coming years.
By standardizing “ best practice ” at the international level, we
are certain to eliminate the technical
barriers to trade while maintaining the
safety and health of users of machinery. That level of safety needs to be
high to be in line with the occupational health and safety requirements
of national legislations of different
countries around the world.
Where do we go from here ?
The next decade will call for the revision of the standards to improve the
interface between new emerging technologies and new ways of perceiving
machine safety. EN 292 parts 1 and
2 have been successfully revised
in 2004 as ISO 12100, Safety of
machinery – Basic concepts, general
principles for design – Part 1 : Basic
terminology, methodology, and Part 2:
Technical principles.
Alfred Sutter
Chair ISO/TC 199,
Safety of machinery
Currently ISO 14121, Principles of Risk Assessment, is in the
process of revision. Alongside ISO
12100, this standard has gained wide
acceptance. Many users regretted that
it did not provide specific tools to carry out risk assessment, so that, due to
the need to adapt the standard to the
new ISO 12100, a revision of ISO
14121 became necessary.
Another important issue of
the machinery safety concept is
“ information for use ” : instructions
for users are an important element in
ensuring the safety of machinery. One
1
World Scene
Standing up for the
global economy
More than 800 leaders of government and business from 70
countries gathered on the occasion of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) 35 th
World Congress, from 6 to 9
June in Marrakesh, Morocco,
to address the key challenges
facing business today while
highlighting the ICC tools
available to tackle them and
ICC commission work being
done to address them.
Jean-René Fourtou (below),
the Chief Executive of Vivendi
Universal and the Chair of the
ICC, issued the “ Marrakesh
Business Declaration ” urging
progress in the world trade
talks and strongly supporting
globalization.
One part of the declaration
says, “ There is an evident need
today for heightened security
measures for the movement of
goods and people across borders.”
It also said, “ But those measures
must be cost-effective and pose
the minimum of hindrance to
international commercial flows.”
One area of security that drew
attention was the International
Ship and Port Facility Security
Code (ISPS Code) that took
effect 1 July 2004, aimed at
securing maritime transport.
For more information:
http://iccworldcongress.net/
Ministerial Conference on
small businesses and
entrepreneurship
Ministers and government
representatives of more than 70
countries issued a common
declaration in Istanbul on 5
June 2004 at the close of the
2 nd OECD Ministerial Confer-
2
Institute (NEN), ISO member
for The Netherlands and NKN,
the Dutch national IFAN
member.
ence on Promoting Entrepreneurship and Innovative SMEs
in a Global Economy.
The Ministerial Conference,
which was organized jointly by
the OECD (Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and
Development) and the Turkish
Ministry of Industry and Trade,
approved the Istanbul Ministerial Declaration, and committed to, “ Working cooperatively
to achieve progress in reducing
barriers to SMEs’ access to
international markets.”
The event builds on the first
OECD ministerial conference
in Bologna, Italy, in 2000, at
which 48 countries adopted
the Bologna Charter on SME
Policies. The Charter established
the International Network for
SME’s (INSME), today an
association of over 40 countries
to promote innovation and
technology transfer among
small businesses.
For more information :
www.oecd.org
2005 World Sustainable
Building Conference
in Tokyo
Some 1500 building researchers, practitioners, officials,
industry representatives and
students from all over the
world will gather for the World
Sustainable Building Conference in Tokyo, Japan on 27
and 28 September 2005 to
exchange the latest knowledge
and experience on sustainable
buildings.
Its slogan “ Action for Sustainability ” recognizes that now is
the time to move into action
towards the common goal of
providing buildings and an
urban context that support
sustainable ways of living.
Towards this end, the conference will focus on how to
bridge the gaps between environmental, social and economic
aspects, gaps between the stakeholder’s concerns and gaps
between the regional concerns.
Abstracts of 500 words or less
are being accepted until 1 September 2004.
This is the fourth event in the
series of international conferences, which is now seen as the premier international event in the
field of Sustainable Buildings.
For more information visit
the SB05Tokyo Website :
www.sb05.com/
or the SB05Tokyo Conference
Secretariat : [email protected]
International Conference
on “ StandardizationAwareness-Compliance ”
Leaders from industry, government, standards user organizations and standards developing
organizations will gather for
the 11th International Federation
of Standards Users (IFAN)
International Conference in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
on 11 to 12 November 2004.
The Conference will review initiatives from around the world
aiming to raise awareness of
standards and the standards
development process and the
relationships between regulations, compliance and standards.
An audience of around 300
participants is expected to
attend the event which will
feature presentations by ISO
Vice-President (Policy), Dr.
Torsten Bahke, and other
prominent figures in international standardization.
The event is being organized by
IFAN, in cooperation with the
Netherlands Standardization
ISO’s Committee on conformity
assessment is holding its plenary
meeting on 9 and 10 November
in Amsterdam in order to facilitate participation in both events.
www.ifan2004.com
Workshop spurs
standardization activities
in African Union
A new momentum has been
created for the effective
coordination of standardization
activities in Africa by a recently
concluded workshop.
The African Regional Organization for Standardization
(ARSO) and the African Union
(AU) organized the two-day
workshop on 24 and 25 May in
Kigali, Rwanda, to raise awareness on standardization and to
highlight the needs to coordinate standardization activities
in Africa, with a view at establishing an African Common
Market. Presentations included
a report by Mr. Asraf Caunhye,
Director of the Mauritius Standards Bureau and ISO Regional
Liaison Officer for Africa, on
collaboration between ISO and
ARSO.
Among the recommendations to
emerge were the need to encourage country membership and
participation in ARSO, its activities and in international standardization as well as to apply the
principles of harmonization of
standards as laid down in the
WTO’s Agreement on Technical
Barriers to Trade and the WTO’s
Agreement on the Application of
Sanitary and Phytosanitary
Measures.
The African Union meeting of
experts endorsed the recommendations and agreed to forward
them for consideration by the
African Union Conference of
Ministers of Trade and Industry
for ratification and eventual
implementation within the rules
and procedures of the African
Union.
ISO Scene
ISO President’s official
visit to Poland
ISO President Oliver Smoot paid
an official visit to Poland in May
2004 as guest of the national
standards institute, Polish Committee for Standardization (PKN),
ISO member for the country.
ISO Secretary-General Alan
Bryden with the Prime Minister of
Kazakhstan, Mr. Akhmietov.
by the representatives of 14
countries of the region.
ISO President Oliver Smoot
with Mrs. Smoot (centre) with
the President of PKN,
Dr. Janusz Szymanski (far right)
and the President of the Polish
Confederation of Employers,
Dr. Andrzej Malinowski (far left).
In addition to his discussions
with the President of PKN Dr.
Janusz Szymański, Mr. Smoot’s
schedule of VIP meetings
included a visit with the President of the Polish Bank Association, the President of the
Polish Chamber of Commerce
and the President of the Polish
Confederation of Employers.
He underlined the increasing
need for and expectations placed
on International Standards to support a sustainable global economy, with particular emphasis on
their significant contribution to
facilitating international trade.
PKN has been a member of ISO
since 1947 and currently participates in 272 of ISO’s standardsdeveloping technical committees
and subcommittees, which represents about 40 % of the total.
www.pkn.pl
ISO Secretary-General on
official visit to Kazakhstan
Bryden met the Prime Minister
of Kazakhstan, Mr. Akhmietov,
and the Minister for Industry and
Trade, Mr. Zhaksybekov, during
a visit to the country in late May
to participate in the 25 th session
of the Euro-Asian Council for
Standardization, Metrology and
Certification (EASC), attended
Mr. Bryden spoke on International Standards in the global
economy and gave a press conference in the company of Mr.
Kussainov, EASC Chairman
and President of KAZMEMST,
Kazakhstan’s Committee for
Standardization, Metrology and
Certification and ISO’s member
for the country since 1994.
Mr. Bryden encouraged the
public authorities and all other
economic actors to increase
their participation in international standardization. He
welcomed Kazakhstan’s current
projects to adjust its legal
framework for technical
regulations, as well as to build
up its infrastructure and
increase initiatives to promote
quality in industry and services.
At the EASC meeting, Mr.
Sergiu Baban, General Director
of the Department of Standardization and Metrology in the
Republic of Moldova, was elected the new President of EASC.
Standards Norway
A new standards body has been
established in Norway following
the reorganization of the standardization system in the country.
Standards Norway (SN) takes
over all responsibilities in
regard to ISO which were previously held by the Norges
Standardiseringsforbund (NSF).
In accordance with this change,
ISO membership for Norway
has been transferred to SN from
NSF as of 1 June 2004.
www.standard.no
Pan American Standards
Commission’s General
Assembly
national Standards and global
trade on national and regional
standardization.
An overwhelming majority of
delegates attending the Pan
American Standards Commission
General Assembly (COPANT
GA) prefer to enhance participation in ISO and IEC rather than
create a new set of regional
standards, according to ISO VicePresident (technical) Ziva Patir.
The meeting agenda was highlighted by two workshop sessions : “ the Roles of Standards
and Conformity Assessment to
support Good Regulatory Practice ” and “ Mentoring & Twinning Arrangements ”. A tribute
was made to Peter Walsh of
Standards Australia International (SAI), who will be leaving
the organization after some 30
years experience, for his service
and contributions to PASC.
The COPANT GA and related
meetings were hosted by the
Associação Brasileira de Normas
Técnicas (ABNT), ISO member
for Brazil, in Salvador de Bahia,
from 10 to 14 May 2004.
Ziva Patir, ISO Vice-President
(technical) gives a presentation at
the COPANT General Assembly.
Ms. Patir noted the increasing
number of COPANT members
interested in adopting ISO standards and translating them into
Portuguese and Spanish in an
effort to avoid duplication and
unnecessary barriers to trade.
Great interest in standards for
social responsibility was revealed
at a CSR seminar held in
conjunction with the COPANT
General Assembly, particularly
from developing countries that
believe they stand to gain from
any ISO activity in the area.
Carlos Santos Amorim of
ABNT was designated the
President-Elect of COPANT.
Pacific Area Standards
Congress
The 27 th meeting of the Pacific
Area Standards Congress (PASC),
a forum to strengthen international
standardization programmes for
countries in the Asia-Pacific
region, was held in Vancouver,
Canada in May 2004.
Presentations included a report
from ISO President Oliver
Smoot, on the impact of Inter-
The meeting was hosted by
SCC, the Standards Council of
Canada, ISO member for the
country.
ISO participates in 5 th
International Conference
on Performance-Based
Codes and Fire Safety
Design Methods
ISO’s technical
committee on fire
safety engineering
(TC 92/SC 4) is participating in the 5th
International Conference on Performance-Based Codes
and Fire Safety
Design Methods
which will present
the state-of-the-art
and case studies in this matter.
Due in part to the contribution
of ISO/TC 92, a growing
library of fire safety engineering design methods is available
to support these existing and
emerging performance-based
codes. An understanding of the
role of underpinning research,
engineering education and the
evolution process from prescriptive to performance basis
is a key to successful implementation.
The conference, organized by
the Society of Fire Protection
Engineers, in collaboration with
CIB, IFE and IRCC will take
place on 6-8 October 2004 in
the European Commission
facilities in Luxembourg.
www.sfpe.org
3
Guest View
Hartmut Reuter
H
artmut Reuter is Chief
Executive Officer of the
Rieter Group, Winterthur,
Switzerland, since May 2002. After
studying industrial engineering
at Darmstadt University of
Technology, Germany, specializing
in electrical engineering, he
graduated in 1981. He has been
with Rieter Holding Ltd., Winterthur, Switzerland, since July 1997.
Most of his previous career was
with Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany, between 1981 and
1997. He lives in Birchwil, in the
canton of Zurich, Switzerland.
ISO Focus : With a workforce of
13 000 employees at 60 locations
worldwide, the Rieter Group plays a
leading role both in textile machinery
manufacturing and as a supplier to
the international automotive industry.
Before we turn our attention to International Standards, could you please
describe the businesses of Rieter and
how they interrelate?
Hartmut Reuter : Rieter, established
in Winterthur in 1795, is a Swissbased group operating on a global
scale in two industrial sectors, namely
textile machinery and automotive supply. In both of these fields the group is
a world market leader in the segments
covered. Worldwide sales in 2003
increased by 4 % to 3,12 billion CHF,
while 13 % of its approximately 13 000
employees work in Switzerland. Rieter Textile Systems Systems is well
known for its spinning machines producing yarn out of cotton or man-made
fibers and for its equipment for the
production of nonwovens. Rieter Automotive Systems develops and produces
components and systems for acoustical
comfort such as carpets, headliners and
parcel shelves and dampers.
4
“ If the industry concerned
did not participate
there would be a danger
of too many theoretical
standards being issued
that bore little relation
to industrial reality.”
ISO Focus : Rieter employees actively
participate in ISO technical committee ISO/TC 72, Textile machinery,
and its subcommittees. What are
some of the advantages that participation in ISO’s technical work brings
to Rieter specifically, and to business
in general ?
Hartmut Reuter : International standards, whether in the field of product
safety, for example, or in quality
and environmental management, are
appropriate and useful at all events.
This is especially true for companies
like Rieter with an international scope,
which operate in a complex network
of suppliers, customers and joint venture partners. We actively participate
in ISO working groups so that not
only standards that impose restrictions on industry are developed, but
also those that assist industry and
make its work easier. If the industry
concerned did not participate there
would be a danger of too many
theoretical standards being issued
that bore little relation to industrial
reality. We are interested in contributing our experience to the process
of drawing up standards and in
being acquainted with standards at
an early stage so that we can start
to put them into practice properly
and without being under pressure
in terms of time. Participation by
the industrial companies that are
to implement these standards also
prevents unnecessary over-regulation
through standards. Overall, standardization should help us to reduce costs
and increase our competitiveness.
ISO Focus : Offering state-of-the-art
manufacturing services in Europe,
South America, or China requires
International Standards for maintaining industrial production from technical drawings, graphic symbols and
testing aspects to the intricate flow of
standard interchangeable parts.
How have ISO International Standards helped ? What specific standards would you like to see coming
out of ISO?
Hartmut Reuter : As CEO I am not
involved in every detail of these standards. Our quality managers confirm
that ISO standards are internationally
accepted, but also that their numbering
is rather complex. It’s difficult to get
a clear overall picture. The rather high
cost of copies also often means that
the standards are not available everywhere. Our quality managers have also
pointed out to me that many standards
in the field of simplified drawing are
only obtainable as DIN or at best EN
standards. ISO coverage of product
All photos © Rieter
The Rieter Group
Rieter, established in Winterthur in 1795, is a Swiss-based industrial group
operating on a global scale. It is a leading supplier of systems solutions and
services for the textile, automotive and plastics industries.
Rieter Textile Systems develops and produces machinery, integrated systems
technology
components
for converting fibers and plastics into yarns,
PSAand
Peugeot
Citroën, Direction
de la Communication
nonwovens and pellets. In partnership with automotive manufacturers, Rieter
Automotive Systems develops and produces components, modules and integrated systems on the basis of fibers, plastics and metals in order to provide
acoustic comfort and thermal insulation in motor vehicles.
through our Rieter department for
Environment, Health and Safety (EHS)
at the international level with meetings
and regular exchanges of experiences
so that all Rieter locations worldwide
maintain the same standards. Safety
provisions encompass personnel, the
industrial production processes and
the products manufactured by Rieter.
In-house and external specialists regularly inspect Rieter’s plants for compliance with legal requirements as well as
internal and ISO standards. For safety
and health, local laws and regulations
are often more important than ISO
standards.
safety is also less than complete : CE
conformity in Europe versus CCC
conformity in China. In our view ISO
should prevent national standards from
becoming a barrier to trade through the
medium of safety regulations.
ISO Focus : On-the-job accidents and
illnesses can cause higher absenteeism and more downtime – and impact
the company’s bottom line. What
strategies does Rieter implement in
order to ensure the safety and health
of its workers ? How do ISO voluntary
standards help in this endeavour ?
Hartmut Reuter : We are convinced
that safety standards are very important, and make workplaces safer
(e.g. CE conformity of machinery
and tools). We coordinate our efforts
Process control in Rieter’s
technology center for
man-made fiber machinery.
ISO Focus : What standards are of
value to Rieter in terms of quality and
environmental management ?
Rieter Automotive’s Center of Excellence for acoustics
research (systems for acoustic comfort and thermal
protection in motor vehicles).
Hartmut Reuter : These are primarily ISO 9001, ISO 9004 and
ISO 14001. In the Rieter Automotive
Systems Division, another 12 plants
obtained initial certification for compliance with ISO 14001 in 2003, so
that more than 75 % of Automotive
Systems’ locations worldwide are
already certified under this standard.
Rieter Automotive has launched the
so-called ECO WAY environmental
5
Guest View
programme that focuses on three
main issues : 1) eco-efficient products to minimize environmental
impacts throughout the product life
cycle ; 2) eco-efficient technologies
to reduce energy consumption, use
secondary raw materials and generMeasuring a Rieter interior carpet in the acoustic roller
test bench of Rieter Automotive Systems.
ate less waste ; 3) eco-efficient plants
to achieve superior production procedures.
Assembly of a
combing machine in
Rieter’s textile machinery
production plant.
“ For safety and health,
local laws and regulations
are often more important
than ISO standards.”
6
ISO Focus : Companies will grow
and prosper when they compete on
the basis of quality, service, and innovation. What are your views on the
respective merits of supplier’s declaration and third-party conformity
assessment ?
Hartmut Reuter : The pressure
imposed by ISO 9001 certification
helps us to ensure that our suppliers
worldwide improve their quality on
the basis of a uniform and traceable
system. Another advantage of certified
companies is that they always have
a competent contact point for quality, safety and environmental issues.
However, successful re-certification
after three years provides the first reliable evidence, since initial certification
can only be regarded as a beginning, a
first step. Nevertheless, we should not
forget that ISO certification is certainly
an important criterion but that cost and
flexibility are also important.
Interior noise measurement on the acoustic
roller test bench of the Swiss supplier Rieter
Automotive Systems.
Copyright BP Plc.
Photo © ISO
Main Focus
Safe machinery
saves lives
Putting machine
safety in a global
perspective
By Jean Bataillé, Convenor
ISO/TC 199, Safety of machinery,
WG 1, Basic principles,
methodology, terminology
W
hen, in November 1995, the
CEN/TC 114 Special Group
undertook to revise ISO/TR
12100 1) (the ISO Technical Report
endorsing the basic European standard linked to European regulations:
EN 292:1991) within the framework
of the Vienna agreement, the members of the group decided from the
outset that the standard resulting from
this revision would be a fully-fledged
International Standard, both in content and in form. Thanks, therefore,
to the participation of experts from a
wide range of horizons – whether in
terms of countries or in terms of the
interests they represented – this risky
undertaking was brought to completion. After eight years of intense activity (November 1995-November 2003),
this important “ core ” standard for the
field of machine safety saw the light
of day.
The remarkable determination of the Special Group, which did
not hesitate to meet five times in the
course of 2001 alone to deal with all
the comments returned on the DIS
(draft International Standard), deserves
to be underlined. The only blemish in
the process was due to a peculiarity
in the implementation of the Vienna
Agreement (now corrected), which
unfortunately prevented unanimous
adoption by the 23 Participating members of ISO/TC 199.
Promoting the concept
of integrated safety
When the designer of a
machine does everything in his power
to ensure that the user of the machine
has nothing more to do, to work safely,
than to stay within the boundaries of
the normal anticipated use, then he is
integrating safety into the design of
this machine.
As yet, the principle of integrated safety is not universally applied
and was therefore hotly debated before
1) ISO/TR 12100, Safety of machinery – Basic
concepts, general principles for design – Part 1:
Basic terminology, methodology and Part 2: Technical principles.
7
the group members finally agreed on
the fact that the more upstream the protective measures are applied, the more
effective, safe and even cost-effective
they are.
A well established risk
reduction strategy
8
Finally, in Part 2, ISO 12100
describes a number of general principles for the implementation of each
of the three steps of the risk reduction
method (inherently safe design, safeguarding, information for use).
A broad range of users
A careful reading of the two
parts of the standard shows that it does
indeed apply to all machines : conventional machine tools, mobile machines,
lifting machines, machines intended
for the general public.
ISO 12100 is primarily intended for designers of machines – all
machines – particularly when there are
One important element of this
strategy lies in the method used to
evaluate – by answering a set of nine
questions – whether the risk reduction
objectives have been achieved.
Terminology, basic hazards,
and principles for design
Before describing the “ 3-step ”
method, ISO 12100 defines 54 terms
ranging from “ machine ” to “ protective
measures ” and from “ safety function ”
to “ failure to danger ”. This terminology will serve as a basis for an international multilingual glossary of machine
safety.
The standard also gives a description of basic hazards to be taken into
account in the design of machines, a
description which is particularly useful in
connection with the initial risk analysis,
which is one of the preconditions to the
implementation of the “ 3-step ” method.
“ ISO 12100 defines
the basis on which all
international Standards
devoted to machinery
safety should be built
to meet the criterion of
worldwide relevance.”
About the author
Photo © Yves Cousson/INRS
ISO 12100 advocates an iterative method (involving a succession of
“ loops ”) for reducing risk at the design
stage; according to this method, the
integrated protective measures applied
during each “ loop ” result from an
initial assessment of the risk, and their
effect is evaluated on the basis not only
of the achieved reduction in risk, but
also of elements such as the non-introduction of new risks, the preservation
of the machine’s ability to perform its
function, the preservation of the operator’s working conditions and those
of other people involved (concept of
adequate risk reduction).
This “ 3-step ” iterative method
requires the designer to take full advantage, in turn, of inherently safe design
measures, safeguarding measures and,
finally, user information measures
aimed at providing the latter with all
he needs to know to take the protective
measures relevant to his field.
Photo © Yves Cousson/INRS
Main Focus
Jean Bataillé
was in charge
of conformity
to standards
and regulations,
applicable in
France, and of
the exports of
handheld electrical tools at
Black & Decker, and subsequently at
Peugeot Outillage Électrique. In 1988,
he joined the Union de Normalisation
de la Mécanique (French standardization bureau for mechanical engineering) and takes an active part in CEN/
TC 114, Safety of machinery, and in
ISO/TC 199. Jean Bataillé joined the
Mission Normalisation in Institut
National de Recherche et Sécurité
(French occupational health and safety
institute) in 2001 and increased his
involvement in the standardization of
machinery safety.
Safe machinery
saves lives
A special place among
other standards
The content and scope of ISO
12100 – “ 3-step ” method, description
of basic hazards, general design principles applicable to all machines (industrial machines, mobile machines, lifting
appliances, etc.), the representativeness
of the experts within the Special Group
(representatives of machinery manufacturers and users, consumer associations, occupational safety and health
experts and public authorities), but
also the quadripartite ISO/IEC/CEN/
CENELEC representation, the participation of the membership of technical
committee ISO/TC 199, Safety of
machinery, representing all continents
– all of these elements lend support
to the claim that ISO 12100 defines
the basis on which all International
Standards devoted to machinery safety
should be built to meet the criterion of
worldwide relevance.
Safety pays :
designing
machines that care
By Paul Makin, immediate past
chair, ISO/TC 199, Safety of
machinery, Chester, United
Kingdom
T
he increased use of machinery
is one of the key stages in the
development of any country,
and there is now a wide spectrum
of use from the mature societies in
the developed world to those in the
emerging economies. Today, machines
are used for both professional use in
such key sectors as metal and wood
working, plastics and paper, construction, agriculture and forestry as well as
non-professional use in the home and
garden and leisure. Indeed, a growing
trend is the migration of machines
intended for professional use into the
non-professional sector.
However, while the intensity and range of use may vary from
country to country and industry to
industry, the risks from the use of an
Photo © ISO
no specific standards dealing with the
machine in question (product safety
standard, or Type C standard according
to the definition given in ISO/IEC 51 ;
Type C standards are product standards
that contain detailed specifications
for particular machines or groups of
machines). It is also intended as a help
to writers of Type C standards and is in
fact aimed at all social and economic
players involved in machine safety.
Considering the nature of its provisions, the standard is also intended
for those who train designers (students
or engineers). In its introduction, the
standard states : “ It is recommended
that this standard be incorporated in
training courses and manuals to convey
basic terminology and general design
methods to designers .” The training of
designers is a form of advanced protection which cannot but have a positive
impact on both society and the economy. Steps to that end have already been
taken in many countries to approach
those involved in further training as
well as initial training.
individual machine are the same – or
at least similar – wherever it is used.
It is therefore logical to expect that
there should exist the possibility of
developing a common approach – a
common philosophy and methodology
– to reducing the risks arising from the
use of machinery that could be applied
anywhere in the world.
Historically, national laws and
regulations dealing with the safety of
machines have developed in parallel
with the increased use of machines in
response to society’s need to have the
benefits from the machines without the
consequential costs from the risks that
machines generate. Individual countries
have developed their own approach to
machinery safety legislation and many of
these sometimes conflicting approaches
have in effect been seen or are barriers to a truly global trade in machines.
Manufacturers have had – and still are
having – to produce machines with
different protective measures to gain
access to different markets.
9
Main Focus
• Facilitate relations between manufacturers, users and bodies in
charge of technical inspection and
testing.
How a common philosophy
and methodology can help
The use of a common philosophy and methodology that can be used
for any machine and for any risk or
combination of risks will :
Photo © New Holland
• Promote the risk-based approach to
machinery design.
• Allow product standards to be
developed within ISO and IEC
that are based on an internationally
accepted approach.
• Stimulate the development of
protective devices as technology
develops.
• Promote a constructive dialogue
between the developed and developing countries.
• Allow a wide range of interests
such as consumer groups and
employee representatives to take
part in the future development of
the philosophy and methodology.
• Contribute towards the development of an international machinery
market through the abolition of
technical barriers to trade.
• Reduce the risks of injury at home,
work and leisure.
• Contribute towards the achievement of equal levels of safety in the
various countries for each safety
aspect dealt with in a standard.
• Stimulate the development of
protective devices as technology
develops.
• Promote a constructive dialogue
between the developed and developing countries.
10
This approach, as encapsulated
in ISO 12100, Safety of machinery
– Basic concepts, general principles
for design – Part 1: Basic terminology,
methodology and Part 2 : Technical
principles, gives special benefits to
SMEs that may not have the resources
to develop their own approach to many
sophisticated areas of technology.
They can also use the standards with
the confidence that they are using the
methodology that has been developed
by the world’s leading experts in the
given technology.
My views
on the current situation
in standards bodies
Nearly everyone involved in the
production of safety standards agree
that the future lies in making standards at the international level : “ do it
once, do it internationally ”. This is
reflected within CEN and CENELEC
where most new work and revisions of
existing standards are planned as ISO
or IEC standards under the cooperative
agreements (Vienna Agreement and
Dresden Agreement) with CEN and
CENELEC.
“ The risks from the use
of an individual machine
are the same – or at
least similar – wherever
it is used.”
However, in my view, it would
be wrong to take the view that the future
is all bright for international standardization in the safety of machinery field.
There are some fundamental problems
that standards bodies and national governments have to solve.
The first one is that to be truly
international the standards have to be
developed and accepted by all countries – and that is not the case at the
moment. Standardization both generally and within the machinery sector is a
“ rich countries ” club. It requires a well
developed national standards structure
to participate at the ISO/IEC level. It
also requires national organizations
that are prepared to send experts to the
meetings – which are almost inevitably
somewhere else in the world. These
requirements exclude most developing
countries that do not have the necessary resources in money and expertise.
Lest we are too complacent, let us
also understand that within Europe
many interest groups are also excluded
from the standardization process. For
About the author
Paul Makin
was chair of
ISO/TC 199,
Safety of
Machinery
from its inception in 1991
until 2002, and
was chair of
the ISO/IEC
group that produced ISO/IEC Guide
51:1999, Safety. A professional
mechanical engineer by training, he
was employed as an engineering manager in the senior management teams
of various companies and was one of
the UK’s Inspectors of Health and
Safety in the Health and Safety Executive, heading machinery safety in the
Technology Division. He was head of
the BSI delegation to CEN during the
creation of the machinery safety programme in support of the European
Machinery Directive. He was one of
the “ philosophers ” that wrote the
European standards, EN 292, Safety of
machinery. Paul Makin presently runs
his own consultancy providing advice
on machinery safety, standards and
European legislation.
Safe machinery
saves lives
example, few working groups have an
input from workers’ representatives
or from consumer groups. The same
applies to SMEs – the very organizations expected to benefit from the new
standardization process.
Clash of legal systems
Another major problem is the
clash of national legal systems. This
has became very apparent within the
machinery sector over the so-called
“ list of hazards ”. Using the EN 292/
ISO 12100 approach, it is necessary to
produce a list of hazards being dealt
with within the standard. This is an
essential step – from the European
point of view – which defines the
basis of the risk assessment and the
consequent risk reduction measures.
However, from the American point of
view – or at least the American legal
profession – this is completely unacceptable because it is considered to
be guilty knowledge and makes the
machinery supplier vulnerable in the
event of a claim for damages. From
the European point of view, any standard that gives risk reduction measures
without defining the hazards that they
are aimed at is dangerously misleading because it could be used to deal
with the wrong mix of hazards. This
apparently simple difference is holding up the production of a wide range
of machinery standards.
The declaration by the World
Trade Organization that international
standards are an essential aid to a
truly global trade was encouraging.
However, the reality of the situation is
that there has been little or no positive
action to support the use of standards
to remove Technical Barriers to Trade
(TBTs). Perhaps we need to resolve
some of the problems within the standards organizations before this will
happen ?
There is also the need to speed
up the whole production process so
that the very scarce resources available
with the whole standardization field
are used to the best effect.
Universal and
individual risk
By Dennis R. Cloutier, Cloutier
Consulting Services, Cincinnati,
USA, US Delegate to
TC199/WG 5, Risk assessment
W
hen man first developed
implements to assist him
with obtaining the basic elements of life, he also introduced risk.
If a stick could be used as a club to
subdue large animals thus providing
food, the stick could also cause harm
to the user or other individuals.
Today we have advanced far
beyond using a stick as a club, and in
the process we have introduced unimaginable risk to all of society. A simple
examination of the machinery man has
invented over time, and especially in
the last century, would easily reveal
the hazards associated with its use.
Over the past several decades,
the safety of individuals operating and
maintaining machinery has become the
focus of many institutions. This is not
to suggest that the safety of machinery
was ignored or not considered earlier
during its evolution. It is the author’s
observation that safety of machinery
has become its own discipline within
the past 60 to 70 years.
How to address hazards
present in the operation
of machinery
There are numerous products
that are used continuously, every day
by mankind to help us travel, communicate, manufacture items, prepare
our food and so on. In the International
Standards community, ISO/TC 199 is
concerned with the safety of machinery. There are numerous standards
that address the safety of machinery
society uses on a daily basis. Many of
these standards include safety requirements applicable to specific machines.
There are some standards that address
the concept of safety, in general, as it
applies to the manufacture and use of
machinery. These address the hazards
present in the operation of machinery
and the risk of harm to those involved
in the operation or repair of the
11
Main Focus
Each task is evaluated
for possible hazards
machinery. It naturally follows that
once risk is identified, measures are
implemented to reduce that risk.
12
To achieve maximum risk reduction,
he, too, must perform the risk assessment and the risk reduction by taking
into account the instructions and information for use of the manufacturer.
ISO 14121 is being revised
in order for it to harmonize with the
requirements of newly revised ISO
12100 (see p. 7). This revision of ISO
14121 provides the required elements
for performing a risk assessment and
how it should be organized. The subjective nature of evaluating risk, determining the exposure to and severity of
that risk and estimating the probability
of a harmful event taking place leads
to several different methods to perform
risk assessment. This does not take
into account the selection of appropriate protective measures, which must be
done to complete the process.
About the author
“ Our goal is the
elimination or reduction of
harm to individuals.”
Photo © A. Sutter, SUVA
ISO 14121, Safety of machinery – Principles of risk assessment,
was first developed using European
standard EN1050 as a model document. Currently it is undergoing a
revision which will harmonize it with
other ISO standards that prescribe the
performance of a risk assessment and
risk reduction. TC 199/WG 5 has been
established to write the revision of ISO
14121. The working group currently is
midway through the project and it is
apparent the revised document will be
substantially more than the original.
Risk assessment is a process
that can be applied to any piece of
equipment, or process. It will help the
people performing the assessment to
identify hazards associated with the
machine or the process subject to the
assessment. With hazards identified,
risk can be evaluated and appropriate
protective measures can be selected
to reduce risk to some predetermined
level. However, while the process may
be considered universal, the application to a particular type of equipment
may differ. The difficulty comes with
the nature of the equipment. That is, if
the equipment is a production machine,
operated in a controlled environment,
the assessment is different from if it is
a consumer product developed for public use. Another difficulty comes from
considering who is performing the risk
assessment and the risk reduction.
The manufacturer (supplier) of equipment must perform an assessment and
apply appropriate protective measures
because he knows best the details of
his equipment. As the manufacturer
gives the performance of his equipment he has to guarantee its safe use.
However, because the focus of all this
is the reduction of harm to individuals
involved in the day to day operation or
maintenance of machinery, the user
(employer) should also be considered.
Photo © A. Sutter, SUVA
The elements needed
for performing a risk
assessment
The new draft includes an
extensive informative annex which
includes several examples of risk
assessment and risk reduction methodologies. The examples will include an
analysis at the design phase (without
protective measures), for the identification of hazards, hazardous situations
and harmful events. Another example
will be a methodology utilizing a risk
matrix. This example uses a task-based
approach which begins by identifying
what individuals do when operating
or repairing a machine. Then each
task is evaluated for possible hazards,
resulting risk including exposure and
severity of harm. Finally, protective
measures are implemented to reduce
risk to a predetermined level. Another
example demonstrates the use of a
graph to lead the user through the process. There are two similar examples
that use a numerical scoring system
and a “quantification” method to help
Dennis R.
Cloutier has
been President
since 2001 of
Cloutier Consulting Services,
in Cincinnati,
USA, a technical
services company, and has been
long involved in
safety consulting services, compliance
with regulations and standards, risk assessment training, and is a presenter at educational forums. Between 1973 and 2001, he
was with Cincinnati Incorporated, first as a
factory service representative and then
safety coordinator for nearly 20 years.
He is a member of National Safety Council,
American Society of Safety Engineers, and
is ISO/TC 199/WG 5 representative for US
TAG, as well as chair of ANSI B11TR3
committee, Technical report on Risk
Assessment and Risk Reduction, and chair
of ANSI B11TR5 committee, Technical
report on the measurement of noise
generated by machinery.
Safe machinery
saves lives
the individuals performing the assessment through some of the subjective
aspects of the process. A review of the
examples may lead some to consider
the various attributes of the different
approaches and consider developing
their own. There will be an example of
a hybrid method to illustrate how this
can successfully be accomplished.
Attempting to unify the
process
Easy to operate :
earth-moving machinery
Photo © Caterpillar
There are many risk assessments documents in place or under
development. Attempts have been
made, and continue to be considered to
unify the process and develop one universal risk assessment and risk reduction guide. The difficulty the experts in
the field cite in this effort is the challenge presented by the varied nature of
risk and the different kinds of exposure
for individuals. Consumer products are
very different from machine tools that
are provided for the manufacturing
environment. Individuals are exposed
to risks from all types of machines
with which they may interact through
the average day. The car, bus or train
they commute in, the building elevators or escalators they ride in or on, the
machines they operate or repair, and
everything else present numerous risks
as well as hazardous situations. The
subject is very broad and no expert or
committee of experts has yet been able
to address an issue of this scope without the project becoming too complex
and the experts losing sight of the real
goal. Remember, our goal is the elimination or reduction of harm to individuals. So, individual risk assessment
and risk reduction standards or guides
will continue to be developed by the
various industry sectors. This will
result in specific rather than general
guidance, which will achieve greater
reductions in harm to society.
by Dan Roley, Chair of
ISO/TC 127, Earth-moving
machinery, and of ISO/TC
127/SC 2, Safety requirements and
human factors, Standards
Manager for Caterpillar
Corporate Standards and
Regulations Department, USA
E
arth-moving machines are used
for excavating, loading, transporting, spreading, and compacting earth and other materials – see
the examples of earth-moving machines
on the following pages. They range in
size from small machines that can drive
through doorways to very large machines
that can be worth several million USD.
Operating an earth-moving
machine is similar to driving a car or
truck, except the operator must also
control the machine attachment or
work tool that moves the earth or other
material. The operator stations on
earth-moving machines are designed
to comply with the ISO/TC 127/SC
2 safety and ergonomics standards to
provide a working environment for the
operator that is safe and comfortable,
with controls that are easy to operate.
By the 1960’s the earth-moving
machinery industry was already a global
industry, with machines from the USA,
Europe and Asia being sold into earthmoving applications around the world.
Several countries were beginning to
develop standards and regulations for
earth-moving machines, which created
a challenge for the industry to be able
to meet the different requirements in
different countries.
“ Adopted as national
standards, ISO standards
have reduced the cost and
complexity of developing
and proving compliance
with the safety standards.”
To address the challenge of
having to comply with the different
requirements around the world,
ISO/TC 127 was formed in 1968
13
Main Focus
ergonomics standards by the USA and
Japan and have been referenced for the
technical requirements in the European
earth-moving machine standards. With
the adoption of the ISO standards as
national standards, the cost and complexity of developing and proving
compliance with the safety standards
has been reduced and the overall level
of safety and comfort for the earthmoving machinery industry has been
improved.
“ With ISO standards,
the overall level of safety
and comfort for the earthmoving machinery industry
has been improved.”
Addressing safety and
human factors
One common objective of
both the earth-moving machinery
industry and the users of earthmoving machines is to provide a safe
and comfortable work place for the
workers who operate the machines.
This common objective has enabled
health and safety experts from
industry, relevant organizations and
independent test laboratories to work
together efficiently in ISO/TC 127/SC
2 to develop over 40 standards that
address the safety and human factors
14
areas of earth-moving machines.
Representatives from 18 Participating
member countries take part in ISO/TC
127/SC 2. The combined input from
all participants has been compiled into
standards that cover safety areas such
as the following :
Access systems • operator dimensions
and space requirements • operator
protection systems • braking • visibility
and mirrors • steering • controls • seats
and seat belts • vibration • sound • safety
signs • electrical and electronic systems
• warning alarms •
operator environment
• lighting • guarding
• operator instructions
• visual displays.
ISO
standards
adopted and
referenced
worldwide
to develop international standards
for earth-moving machinery. The
objective was to develop a complete
set of ISO standards that could be used
as the basis for any national standards
and regulations. Since 1968, over
100 ISO/TC 127 standards have been
published to address the commercial
needs for earth-moving machines and
the safety and ergonomics areas for
earth-moving machines. Twenty new
standard projects are underway to
address smaller, larger and new types
of machines and the application of new
technologies.
Most of the
ISO/TC 127/SC 2
safety and ergonomics standards have
been adopted as
national safety and
The ISO operator protection
standards are the best examples of
the ISO/TC 127/SC 2 safety standards
that have improved operator safety
and that have significantly reduced
the costs to market of machines globally. Industry performed extensive
testing and simulations of machine
rollovers and intrusions into the
operator space to develop performance criteria for operator protections
systems. These criteria were incorporated into ISO standards for rollover
protection structures (ISO 3471), falling object protection structures (ISO
3449) and operator protection guards
(ISO 10262). The ISO/TC 127/SC 2
Safe machinery
saves lives
About the author
Dan Roley,
Chair of ISO/TC
127 and of TC
127/SC 2 is the
Standards Manager for Caterpillar in the corporate Standards
and Regulations
Department. His
first research
projects at Caterpillar were in the ergonomics and whole body vibrations areas,
where he developed ergonomic guidelines
for earth-moving machines and provided
input for the ISO/TC 127 standards for
ergonomics and seat vibrations.
Dan Roley worked at the INRS Vibration
Laboratory in France as a participant in the
USA-France Exchange of Scientists
Program, following which he worked as
the Project Leader for the test and development of new machines used for earthmoving, agriculture and forestry. Mr.
Roley worked at the Caterpillar European
office in Geneva, Switzerland, as the International Research Manager, then moving
to the Standards and Regulations Department.
operator protection standards have
been accepted by all countries, which
allow one design to be used around
the world. Since operator protection
structures are complex to design and
require costly destructive testing to
show compliance with the standards,
the internationally accepted standards
enable significant cost savings for
both industry and customers.
Several other ISO/TC 127/SC 2
standards have provided similar results
in improving safety and providing
performance criteria for effectively
addressing safety areas. Four good
examples of other ISO standards that
are internationally accepted and that
enable significant cost savings are
the standards for steering (ISO 5010),
electromagnetic compatibility (ISO
13766), visibility (ISO 5006) and braking (ISO 3450).
Manufacturers of earth-moving machines generally have incident
tracking systems that document any
safety incidents on their machines.
The information from the incident
tracking systems show that the ISO/
TC 127/SC 2 standards define safety
performance criteria that are effective.
While ISO/TC 127/SC 2 has
developed over 40 standards in its
attempt to develop a complete set of
safety and ergonomics standards, the
work in SC 2 is continuing to address
new types of machines and the new
technology. SC 2 has 22 active projects
to update the existing standards and
to develop new standards. Some
examples of new standards projects
include new standards for: electronic
control systems, hazard detection
systems, remote control of machines
and whole body vibrations.
Some examples of standard
update projects include: steering to
cover electronic steering, controls
standard to cover new types of multifunction controls, excavator operator
protection standard to cover larger
excavators, EMC standard with more
stringent immunity requirements, and
roll-over protections standard to cover
nonmetallic components.
15
Photo © ISO
Main Focus
Hazards are
everywhere:
how to achieve
functional
safety
By Mark Bowell, Specialist
inspector of control systems in
the United Kingdom Health and
Safety Executive
O
ur workplaces are full of
hazards (potential sources of
harm). To name but a few : a
guillotine on a paper-cutting machine
could slice off a worker’s hand, a
crane that is too overloaded will fail
mechanically, exothermic reactions in
a chemical plant could reach a runaway condition, hydrocarbons on an oil
refinery could leak and ignite, and the
dynamic positioning system of a ship
must continuously adjust the thrusters correctly to avoid collision with a
nearby installation.
16
Our first aim is always to eliminate the hazards at source. This can be
achieved by the application of inherent
safety principles and good engineering
practice. However, in many industrial
scenarios it is not practicable to eliminate every hazard. For example, guillotines need a sharp blade to cut paper,
an exothermic reaction may be the
only way to produce a particular chemical, and oil refineries always contain
hydrocarbons.
Fortunately, these hazards very
rarely materialize because we design
control or protection systems to ensure
safety. These safety-related systems
defend against the remaining hazards
by monitoring the state of the process under control and taking specific action to prevent an unsafe state
occurring. In many cases the specific
action is to shut down part or all of the
process being monitored. If there is no
simple safe state, such as with a ship’s
dynamic positioning system, the safety-related system will have to continuously control the process.
Safety that depends on a control
or protection system operating correctly in response to its inputs is called
functional safety. Functional safety
is the topic of the IEC 61508 series,
which covers safety-related systems
that use electrical and/or electronic
and/or programmable electronic (E/E/
PE) technologies. The standard applies
to these systems irrespective of their
application and includes every part of
the system necessary for correct operation (not just the control logic).
About the author
Mark Bowell is
n expert suporting the work
f IEC SC65A
Working Group
4 and the develpment of the
EC Functional
afety Zone. He
as been a speialist inspector
of control systems in the UK Health and
Safety Executive since 1999. Before then,
he was a research scientist with the Health
and Safety Laboratory investigating software engineering techniques for safetyrelated systems. He has an MSc in Software Engineering, is a Member of the IEE
(the Institution of Electrical Engineers) and
is a Chartered Engineer.
Safe machinery
saves lives
Example applications
and technologies
An example E/E/PE safetyrelated system using electrical (or
electro-mechanical) technology is the
guard interlocking and emergency
stopping system for machinery.
Many safety-related systems
that would have used electromechanical technology or solid-state
electronics now use programmable
electronics instead. Such devices
include programmable controllers,
programmable logic controllers and
digital communication systems (e.g.
bus systems). Enabling technologies
such as application-specific integrated
circuits, microprocessors, and intelligent sensors, transmitters and actuators, are increasingly being integrated
into products and systems.
Meeting the challenge
The challenge is to make sure
that our safety-related systems are sufficiently reliable and carry out all the
functions we need. In practice, E/E/PE
safety-related systems are too complex
to fully determine every failure mode
or to test all possible behaviour. We
have to design each system in such
a way as to prevent dangerous failures or control them when they arise.
Dangerous failures may arise from
development of the safety requirements, specification, design and implementation, operation and maintenance,
and modification, to final decommissioning and/or disposal. The standard
considers all parts of an E/E/PE safetyrelated system that are necessary to
carry out the required functions (i.e.
from sensor, through control logic and
communication systems, to final actuator, including any critical actions of a
human operator).
Example applications include
crane safe load indicators, variable speed
motor drives used to restrict speed for
protection, systems for interlocking and
controlling the exposure dose of medical
radiotherapy machines, or the indicator
lights, anti-lock braking, and enginemanagement systems on automobiles.
Other examples are emergency
shutdown systems in hazardous chemical plants, railway signalling systems
and fly-by-wire operation of aircraft
flight control surfaces.
Recent developments include
network-based safety-related systems,
often facilitated by Internet technology, such as the remote monitoring,
operation or programming of a network-enabled water treatment plant.
An E/E/PE system may be
safety-related even if it does not have
any direct control over potentially
hazardous equipment. For example,
an information-based decision support
tool might be safety-related if erroneous results compromise safety.
Photo © ISO
“ Recent developments
include network-based
safety-related systems,
facilitated by Internet
technology ”
errors or omissions in the specification, random failures of hardware due
to wear and tear, systematic failures
of hardware and/or software due to
design errors, human error, environmental influences such as temperature
or electromagnetic interference, or
problems with the electrical supply.
IEC 61508 uses a risk-based
approach to determine what effort
should be spent on the design of the
E/E/PE safety-related system and to
quantify the required hardware reliability. It covers all development
activities from initial concept, through
hazard analysis and risk assessment,
Hence, IEC 61508 aims to
release the potential of E/E/PE technology to improve both safety and
economic performance, and enable
future technological developments to
take place within an overall safety
framework. Users and regulators can
gain confidence where it has been
applied. It increases efficiency in the
supply chain for suppliers of subsystems and components across industrial sectors, improves communication,
increases clarity of what needs to be
specified, and enables the development of conformity assessment services if required.
17
IEC basic safety
publications
Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of IEC 61508
are IEC basic safety publications. One
of the responsibilities of IEC technical
committees is, wherever practicable, to
make use of these parts of IEC 61508
while preparing their own sector or
product standards that have functional safety of any E/E/PE safety-related
systems within their scope.
Standards based on IEC 61508
have already been published for the
nuclear (IEC 61513) and process (IEC
61511 series) sectors. Other work in
development includes standards for
the machinery sector and for power
drive systems.
Sector specific standards based
on IEC 61508 are aimed at system
designers, system integrators and users.
They take account of specific sector
practice, which can allow less complex
requirements, they use sector terminology to increase clarity, and may specify particular constraints appropriate
for the sector. Usually the sector specific standard will rely on the requirements of IEC 61508 for detailed design
of subsystems, but they may allow end
users to achieve functional safety without having to consider IEC 61508 themselves.
All parts of IEC 61508 can
be used directly by industry as a set
of general requirements for E/E/PE
safety-related systems where no application sector or product standards exist
or where they are not appropriate. IEC
61508 is also used by suppliers of E/
E/PE components and subsystems for
use in all sectors.
The IEC web site has a
Functional Safety Zone (www.iec.ch/
functionalsafety) giving further details
of the IEC 61508 series and associated
standards. This includes an extensive
set of frequently asked questions. If
you cannot find the information you
are looking for, you can submit a new
question for consideration by the committee responsible for guidance on the
standard.
18
Photo © ISO
Main Focus
Vibration and
shock affect
peoples’ lives
By Bruce Douglas, Chair
ISO/TC 108, Mechanical
vibration and shock, and
Eberhard Christ, Chair ISO/TC
108/SC 4, Human exposure to
mechanical vibration and shock
I
n ISO/TC 108, Mechanical vibration and shock, we take the development of mechanical vibration
and shock standards for workplace
safety very seriously. This responsibility, along with the effects of vibration and shock on public safety and the
environment, is a paramount concern
in the development of our standards.
Simply put, these standards can literally affect peoples’ lives, livelihoods
and quality of life.
The general science behind
these standards covers the broad
areas of biodynamics, structural
dynamics, rotor dynamics, structural
acoustics (in concert with ISO/TC 43,
Acoustics), signal processing and the
condition monitoring of structures and
machines. These sciences are complex
in their own right and many are in the
early stages of evolution. All directly
impact workplace safety by providing
guidance to establishing either :
• human exposure limits ;
• methods to evaluate, assess and
monitor the overall dynamic workplace environment i.e. assess risk ;
• methods to identify, diagnose and
prognosticate specific potential
workplace hazards ; and
Safe machinery
saves lives
• methods to identify appropriate
cost-effective corrective action to
mitigate potential workplace hazards.
humans, machines, vehicles and structures, all factors in workplace safety.
More specifically, its scope includes the
general areas of mechanical vibration
and shock pertaining to : terminology
and nomenclature ; actuators, sensors
and associated signal analysis instrumentation ; vibration and shock reduction and control methods ; and, finally,
the measurement and evaluation of the
exposure of humans, stationary structures, vehicles and machines. In addition,
standard methods of data processing,
data acquisition, diagnostic measurement methods, transducer calibration
and condition monitoring of machines
and structures are actively being developed. All these subjects are related to
workplace safety either directly through
assessment of human exposure, potential workplace hazards and application
of hazard control or indirectly by diagnosing and predicting future workplace
hazards.
1 – Cracked Power Plant Rotor.
Assessing the nature of
dynamic forces at work
2 – Whole-body vibration exposure at work
with a wheel-loader.
3 – Hand-arm vibration exposure at work with
an angle grinder.
“ Human exposure to
whole-body vibration is a
widespread occupational
factor that may cause
adverse effects on safety
and health.”
P. Krieger
When assessing the effects on
vibration and shock on workplace
safety, the first consideration is the
nature of dynamic forces at work.
They vary widely from steady state
vibration to low range impulsive forces
to high level shock, and each requires
different methodology, monitoring
cycles and assessment tools.
The general scope of ISO/TC
108 covers the broad area of mechanical
vibration and shock and their effects on
One major category of workplace hazards is the catastrophic failure of machines or structures leading
to injury. Figure 1 dramatically illustrates the high energies involved when
a rotor is cracked and fails in operation. Such failures can be anticipated
if a suitable schedule for monitoring,
maintenance and condition assessment is implemented. For example,
mechanical mobility methods can be
used to assess a structural resonance
which could amplify dynamic forces
in a system including structures,
machines and even the human body.
TC 108 has generated a series of standards, ISO 7626, which outline acceptable methods for measuring mechanical
mobility and related transfer functions
that, when applied, will provide reliable information about the state of the
system under study for further in-depth
assessment by experts.
19
Main Focus
Condition monitoring for
reliable hazard prediction
Since prediction of impending
workplace safety hazards relies on the
monitoring changes in normal operating vibration signatures of critical
systems the quality of the data bases
involved are critical to identifying
precursors to failure. TC 108 is currently working on a series of standards
which, when taken as a whole, will
form a baseline for making an ISOsanctioned vibration measurement.
When complete, these standards will
provide engineers involved in the
workplace with a basic tool for condition monitoring from high-quality
databases where small changes in the
spectral nature of a vibration measurement can serve to predict failure.
Within TC 108, Subcommittee
SC 4, Human exposure to mechanical
vibration and shock, is the standards
body concerned with human exposure
to mechanical vibration and shock. SC
4 is primarily involved with standardization projects in regard to health,
safety, performance and comfort criteria and with guidelines regarding the
effects of occupational and non-occupational exposure on human population. This includes also relevant terminology and characterization of the
biodynamic properties of the human
whole-body and the hand-arm system
by means of biodynamic models.
“ The vibration transmitted
by the seat on a seated
person in all kinds of
vehicles affects mainly
the lumbar spine and
the connected nervous
system.”
Human exposure to
whole-body vibration
Human exposure to whole-body
vibration is a widespread occupational
factor that may cause adverse effects
on safety and health. The vibration
transmitted by the seat on a seated
person and/or by the feet on a standing person in all kinds of vehicles and
mobile machines affects mainly the
lumbar spine and the connected nervous system. Performance and comfort
criteria may be related e.g. to interference with activities as reading, writing, drinking, etc. and the incidence of
motion sickness.
The standards in the field
of whole-body vibration exposure
(ISO 2631 series) define methods of
quantifying the whole-body vibration
About the authors
Dr. Bruce Douglas is
founder and Chief
Scientific Officer of
Resonance Technologies, a technical firm
specializing in the
dynamic design of structures and vehicles. He currently serving as
Chair of ISO/TC 108 and was Director of
Research at the David Taylor Research
Center, the US Navy’s principal laboratory
responsible for naval vehicles and logistics.
He developed a fundamental theory for
inter-laminar damping in elastic-viscoelastic structures and a key analytical model
for the implementation of active isolation
in multiple input-multiple output structural
systems.
20
Dr. Eberhard Christ is
the current head of the
department of Physical
Environmental Factors
(noise, vibration, radiation) and Ergonomics of
the BG-Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health – BIA in
Sankt Augustin/Germany. He also serves
as Chair of ISO/TC 108/SC 4, Human
exposure to mechanical vibration and
shock, and chair of the national DIN committee, Human Vibration Exposure.
At the European level, he is the chair of
the CEN/TC 231, Mechanical vibration
and shock.
exposure by periodic, random and transient vibration in relation to health and
comfort, the probability of vibration
perception and the incidence of motion
sickness. They do not contain vibration
exposure limits. In the frame of the ISO
2631 series, ISO/TC 108/SC 4 prepares
standards concerning the whole-body
vibration exposure on humans in buildings (comfort and annoyance of the
occupants) as well as on passengers
and crews in fixed-guideway transport
systems (comfort in railways). These
standards establish methods for the
evaluation of relative comfort, not
applicable to the evaluation of effects
on human health and safety (Figure 2).
Exposure to handtransmitted vibration
The second important area of
standardization on human exposure to
vibration comprises the so-called handarm vibration caused by hand-held and
hand-guided vibration machines/tools,
by vibrating workpieces held in the
hands or by controls of mobile or
fixed machinery. Excessive exposure to
hand-transmitted vibration may cause
muscular/bone structure, neurological
and vascular disorders of hand and
arm.
The standards in the field of
hand-transmitted vibration (ISO 5349
series) define methods of quantifying
the human exposure by periodic, random or non-periodic vibration. They
provide also guidance for the evaluation
of hand-transmitted vibration but do not
define limits of safe vibration exposure.
Part 2 of ISO 5349 provides guidelines
for the measurement and evaluation
of hand-transmitted vibration at the
workplace.
In principle, all defined measuring and evaluation methods in the
standards regarding the vibration exposure of humans can form the bases to
set legal requirements by the competent
authorities for occupational safety and
health. Manufacturers and designers
will be able to ensure that their products are in conformity with essential
safety requirements (Figure 3).
Safe machinery
saves lives
Through my job, that has taken
me to practically every industrialized
country in the world, I have become a
fervent advocate of international crane
standards. Having seen them at work,
I have seen the advantages they can
bring to the crane industry in terms of
safety, of reputation and in costs. And,
what is true for cranes is certainly true
for a good number of similar industries.
“ In a tight world economy,
there is no place for
unreliability.”
There are nearly 10 million
cranes in operation today worldwide,
on such a scale, it is barely surprising
that economies can be big when crane
management programmes are fully
implemented: potentially, an estimated
USD 3 billion per year can be saved.
But money is not the only consideration. Safety is another – and a truly
vital one.
Photo © ISO
Lower costs, better
quality, fewer accidents
Radical
improvements in
crane safety
By Rolf Lovgren, former Chair,
ISO/TC 96, Cranes, SC 5,
Use, operation and maintenance
of cranes
I
n a tight world economy, there
is no place for unreliability. This
is true of all fields, including
cranes. To keep cranes shipshape, in a
constant state of readiness, and properly maintained is no longer desirable
– it is simply vital. Question : How
do you make them safe and reliable ?
Answer : By introducing quality
crane safety management. And to do
so, one key weapon, and particularly
effective one – International crane
standards.
International crane standards
set up conditions under which everyone wins. Crane builders can count
on producing better, higher quality
products. Crane operators enjoy safer
working conditions and cranes with
improved ergonomics. Firms can rely
on increased crane productivity with
lower costs for use and maintenance.
And business in general can expect
fewer accidents, increased operational
safety, and increased reliability.
Proper preventive maintenance
routines increase the reliability of equipment performance. Using a mandatory defect history database, combined
with inspections and repairs carried out
by qualified crane specialists, decreased
safety-related faults are found. By specifying qualification requirements for
operators and specialists to train them,
safety is enormously improved (crane
operator errors lie at the root of 73% of
all crane accidents). International Standards provide crane maintenance firms
21
The story of a safe handler
Photo © CranePartner International
Control panel in a overhead bridge crane.
Bridge wheels badly worn, rail broken, no
brakes etc.
Stell structure damages caused by wery rough
handling.
with tools to evaluate how well they
are doing in meeting their customer’s
requirements. In my experience with
crane operations in paper mills in North
America and Europe, such maintenance
practice has reduced maintenance cost
from 33% to 64% while reducing failures between 46% and 60% and safety incidents between 33% and 97%.
Results of International Standard level
maintenance in steel mills is also impressive: maintenance costs reduced by from
28% to 56%, failures reduced by 50%
up to 83% and safety incidents by 63%
up to 95%. The demanding automotive
industry in USA (namely, in General
Motors) has seen some radical improvements in crane safety and reduced maintenance costs after focusing their crane
management on international crane standards (see box opposite). Annual crane
defects have declined by 86% and maintenance costs by 57%.
22
Let’s look at a shining example of the implementation of crane inspection and condition monitoring standards for 500 cranes in an automotive
plant (General Motors/Saginaw Metal Casting Operation, Saginaw, Michigan
USA).
GM’s Powertrain operations engine-block casting facility in Saginaw
was first established in the 1920s, and has grown since then to having approximately 140 000 m² under roof. They use 500
cranes/hoist in their operations, in 24 different locations within the plant, made by 22
different manufacturers, with capacities ranging from 0,125 to15 tons. The average crane/
hoist is 20 years old.
They set out to increase safety, reduce
costs and be on world-class level as far as
crane safety and maintenance are concerned.
So what did they do ?
GM’s Powertrain operations engineblock casting facility in Saginaw decided to implement ISO’s International Standards on crane inspection and condition monitoring ISO 9927:1994,
Cranes – Inspections – Part 1: General, and ISO 12482: 1995, Cranes – Condition monitoring – Part 1: General, for their crane maintenance.
CranePartner International’s service division in Michigan (CraneCare
Inc.) was selected for the implementation and maintenance for 500 cranes/
hoists in the plant.
Operations started in 1997 by tailoring individual checklists for every
crane/hoist, collecting information about operational data etc. and adapting
the CranePartner Crane Maintenance and Condition Monitoring programme
(CranePartner System CPS) for the task.
Photo © GM
Main Focus
And the results ? Development between June 1997 and December 2001
was as follows :
• Crane defects have declined from average 7,2 / Hoist/Year in 1997 to 0,85/
Hoist/Year in 2001 (see diagram p. 23)
• Crane Maintenance Costs have declined from average USD 1 274/ hoist/
year, to USD 580/hoist/year (see diagram p. 23)
• GM/SMCO purchase specifications for cranes are similar to ISO crane
standards.
The only market that
counts is the world
market
Throughout the world, there are
increasing safety and environmental
demands and regulations, and the customer’s expectations are constantly on
the rise. New technological developments simplify procedures and maintenance if properly channelled through
International Standards.
A modern comprehensive
crane maintenance programme pays
substantial dividends when it is congruent with International Standards.
The marketplace, obviously, is now
global: with cranes, the only market
that counts is the world market, and
competition is fierce: by applying selfagreed International Standards, a lot of
the grind is taken out of maintenance
work as components and procedures
are standard.
International Standards lead to
higher quality, which, in turn, means
higher safety, greater reliability, and
enhanced customer satisfaction, giving those that apply them an all-round
image of a professional global service
provider. To become – and to remain
– a successful service provider means
Safe machinery
saves lives
Photo © Man
What ISO crane
standards can offer
paying special attention to developing and maintaining services which
follow global requirements: this gives
the assurance that you are on the right
track, at present and for the future.
4000
Decline in
crane defects
3500
Defects/Year
500 cranes in automotive plant
•
Safety related
defects
Production related
defects
3000
•
2500
• Total
2000
1500
1000
•
•
1500
•
1000
1997
120 %
1998
1999
2000
Decline in
crane costs
Material
cost
Labor
cost
500 cranes in automotive plant
Cost/Year
100 %
•
• Total
•
180 %
2001
•
160 %
•
140 %
•
120 %
110 %
1997
1998
© CPI 2002
1999
2000
2001
Crane operation and
maintenance is difficult
to obtain
There are three basic approaches to crane maintenance: maintenance
by in-house crews; service contract by
the manufacturer, and service contract
by a third-party crane maintenance
organization. All three approaches
are appropriate if personnel have sufficient knowledge of both cranes and
maintenance.
All the elements necessary for
building a world-class crane management programme are included in the
International Standards, even though
the design and execution of such
a programme will still have to be
coordinated by the plant maintenance
organization or an outside group contracted to handle the responsibility.
The comprehensive crane maintenance
programme will include crane inspection and evaluation by knowledgeable
engineers, preventive maintenance
tasks by operators and maintenance
specialists, predictive maintenance
technologies, and computerized maintenance management systems.
Comprehensive
knowledge
of crane operation and maintenance
is difficult to obtain. Pockets of
excellence exist in crane builder and
crane user companies and organizations throughout the world. But if no
country or company has succeeded
in gathering all the best knowledge
and practice for designing, building,
installing, operating and maintaining
cranes, the efforts of ISO/TC 96 have
been promising in this field. One of the
most valuable committee activities for
maintenance organizations is the standard for condition monitoring.
ISO/TC 96 works on standardization in the field of cranes, lifting
appliances, and related equipment,
particularly general design procedures,
terminology, classification, load rating,
terminology, safe use, maintenance,
inspections and condition monitoring, crane selection etc., through nine
subcommittees with delegates representing national standards groups from
30 countries. These are: subcommittee
SC 2, Terminology, SC 3, Selection of
wire ropes, SC4, Test methods, SC 5,
Use, operation, and maintenance, SC
6, Mobile cranes, SC 7, Tower cranes,
SC 8, Jib cranes, SC 9, Bridge and
gantry cranes, SC 10 (previously SC
1), Design procedures.
Crane safety improvement standards are used to:
• “Design/specify” a safe crane.
• “Buy” a safe crane
• “Maintain” a safe crane.
• “Use” the crane safely.
“ Crane operator errors
lie at the root of 73 % of
all crane accidents.”
About the author
Rolf Lovgren
was Chair of
ISO/TC 96
Cranes, SC 5,
Use operation
and maintenance
of cranes
between 1986
and 2004. He is
a member of
ANSI/ASME
B30, Standards Committee for Cranes
(USA), US Delegate to ISO/TC 96 and
MIOSHA advisory board member for
Crane Safety (Michigan OSHA).
Mr Lovgren is President and CEO of
CranePartner International Inc. and has
been in the crane and maintenance
engineering business worldwide for over
30 years.
23
Photo © ISO
Main Focus
Ergonomics :
the road to health,
safety and
efficiency
By Dr. Armin Windel, Head of
Ergonomics Unit, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health, Germany, and delegate
to several working groups ISO/
TC 159, Ergonomics
A
retrospective survey of ergonomic standardization in recent
decades shows that some widely
differing objectives have been pursued
in European and international standardization activities. Work on implementing guidelines on the improvement of safety in the workplace began
with European and national standards
back in the 1960s. With regard to the
ergonomic design of products, this has
meant – and continues to mean today –
that the fundamental principles of ergonomics need to be taken into account in
development, production and use, and
thus in all phases in the life of a product. Since the 1970s, European and
international standards have increasingly aimed at consumer protection
while safeguarding free movement of
goods. Consequently, ergonomic principles also have to be considered in the
design of work systems. Fundamental
ergonomic knowledge was increasingly “ bundled ” in the 1980s, chiefly
in international standards.
The Vienna Agreement as well
as the need for globalization have
prompted those concerned in the recent
past to look for common ground in
these three approaches which are apparently difficult to reconcile. The route
being followed at present envisages a
standardization procedure according
to the Vienna Agreement being conducted in parallel at the international
and European levels. At present, only
standardization procedures for which
there is a European directive and for
24
“ Our standards take
account of the aims of
preventive industrial
safety, increase
the performance of
man-system interaction
and improve the
cost-effectiveness of the
complete system.”
which mandating is planned are followed under European direction.
In the meantime, there are a
large number of projects in ergonomic
standardization which have been handled in that way and therefore meet
the various requirements. Below, I
describe three areas of ergonomic
standardization that go to show where
the emphasis lies at present.
No clear structure yet
in ergonomics
While a classification according
to basic standards, product group and
product standards is required and has
been largely implemented in the area
of standardization of machine safety,
a similarly clear structure has been
lacking to date in ergonomic standardization. It is consequently still the
case that ergonomic requirements are
described in many ways and to some
extent in slightly differing terms. Work
is therefore in progress on a guiding and
integrating framework. The basic standard ISO 6385, Ergonomic principles in
the design of work systems, pursues the
aim not just of stipulating the principles
of ergonomics in relation to the design
of work systems but also of describing a
framework concept in the best sense of a
“ base ” standard, on which other standards on specific topics can be based.
At the European level, it is necessary to underpin the requirements of
the Machinery Directive on ergonomic
design with (mandatory) standards.
General principles of ergonomics in
relation to the safety of machines are
described in the EN 614, Safety of
machinery – Ergonomic design principles. In common with EN 13861,
Safety of machinery – Guidance for the
application of ergonomic standards in
the design of machinery, which can be
understood as a guide to the consideration of ergonomic aspects in product
standards, knowledge of the design and
use of machines and experience gained
from incidents, accidents and injuries
is brought together here. Combination
Safe machinery
saves lives
with international standardization is
also aimed for and is already being put
into practice for this area of European
standardization.
A new framework for
visual display terminal
work
Another prime concern of international ergonomic standardization is
the revision and restructuring of the
ISO 9241 series of standards on visual
display terminals. Because of the great
significance of work equipment and
the steady development of technology
in the area of visual display terminal
work, the ISO 9241 series of standards
has become very widely known.
When the scope of this series of
standards was expanded by eliminating
the limitation to office work, the group
title of the standard was changed from
“ Ergonomic requirements for office
activities with visual display terminals ”
to “ Ergonomics of man-machine interaction ”. The restructuring of ISO 9241,
in particular logical numbering of the
parts of the standard and the integration of what to date have been separate
standards, also pursues the aim of giving
this increasingly significant subject area
a stronger, guiding framework. Topics
which are of current interest and much
(Continued overleaf)
About the author
Dr. Armin
Windel studied
Psychology at
the Ruhr-University of Bochum,
Germany. From
1991 to 1999 he
was scientific
assistant and
lecturer at the
department of
industrial and organizational psychology.
Since 1999 Dr. Windel has been a member
of the Federal Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health in Germany, where he is
head of the Ergonomics Unit. He is
involved in several working groups of ISO/
TC 159, Ergonomics, and CEN/TC 122.
Designing worker-friendly work
A new International Standard on the design of work systems is expected
to result in improved user health, safety, and performance as well as cost savings
for business.
A work system involves a combination of people and equipment, within
a given space and environment, and the interactions between these components
within a work organization.
A work system, whether directly or indirectly, may contribute to a
plethora of mental and physical health problems and can result in increased
absenteeism, poor timekeeping and staff turnover – all of which affect the productivity and efficiency of the organization and have a negative effect on the
bottom line. To avoid these negative effects, it is necessary to fit the work system
to the user.
ISO 6385:2004, Ergonomic principles in the design of work systems,
offers a route to improving the interface between individual users and the components of their working situation – such as tasks, equipment, workspace and
environment – right from the beginning of the design process.
For example, concerns over family problems may cause distraction,
predisposing workers
to errors. The right
design of workplaces
can minimize the potential for human error or,
where concentration is
vital, provide additional
social support.
The new standard provides a framework for the design of
new or existing work
systems, with a view
to facilitating the work
behaviour and well
being of users, from
office staff to assemblyline workers. Its guidance may also apply to the design of products for domestic
and leisure activities.
ISO 6385:2004, which replaces ISO 6385:1981, has been updated to
include a description of the design process, definitions of ergonomics and ergonomic design principles and gives an overview of the components involved in
the design of a work system.
“ ISO 6385 is relevant for all sectors, not only heavy industry, but also
the growing service industries and the health sector,” says Wietske Eveleens,
Convenor of the working group that developed the new standard. “ ISO 6385
helps professionals in the creation of durable solutions when facing the challenge of human-centred technical innovation in a quickly changing world.”
The new standard is aimed to be used by managers, workers (or their
representatives) and professions such as ergonomists, human resources, project
managers, and designers who are involved in the design or redesign of work
systems.
ISO 6385:2004 is the work of ISO technical committee ISO/TC 159,
Ergonomics, subcommittee SC 1, Ergonomic guiding principles.
25
Main Focus
in demand such as usability, accessibility and multimedia and mobile devices
are obviously also taken into account.
In addition, it supports practical implementation of the European VDU (Visual
Display Unit) Directive.
Still underestimated :
mental workload and stress
Photo © ISO
Processes which are described
by terms such as “ structural change ”,
“ flexibilization of work ” or “ dynamics of the world of work ” are characteristic of massive restructuring
activities around the world. For
employees, they are associated with
radical changes in their working conditions, which may lead to changes
in areas of activity, new challenges,
but also changed and, in some cases,
higher workloads.
On this basis there is agreement
both internationally and in Europe
that avoiding or reducing work-related
incorrect loads has become a focal
point for action in order to promote the
26
safety and health of employees but also
performance attainment in enterprises.
Not least because of the consideration
of mental workload in European legislation, the need for many enterprises
and employees for detailed consultation
on the topic of “ mental workloads ” has
steadily increased in recent years.
The honour of having created a suitable basis of understanding
on this topic goes to the ISO 10075
series, Ergonomic principles related to
mental workload. Problems of understanding still exist if mental workloads are misunderstood as individual
shortcomings on the part of the person
concerned and are not recognized as
shortcomings in working conditions
in the enterprise. Alongside precise
definitions of the terms “ mental workload ”, “ mental stress ” and their potential negative consequences (Part 1), the
standard series does not just offer
assistance in measuring and assessing
incorrect mental workloads (Part 3), it
also offers tips in the second part on
optimizing working conditions.
We promote industrial
safety and
cost-effectiveness
As this brief survey of current
focal points for action in ergonomic
standardization shows, the activities
in ISO/TC 159 are aimed at taking
better and adequate account in future
of human characteristics, capabilities
and skills in the design of products
and work systems. Concept-related
work and the restructuring of existing standards also raises the suitability for use of the product known as
“ standard ” for the user. To summarize, the standardization activities in
ISO/TC 159 take account of the aims
of preventive occupational safety and
health, increase the performance of
man-system interaction and improve
the cost-effectiveness of the complete
work system.
Safe machinery
saves lives
Burning a trail
ahead in
protective clothing
By Mick Smith, Chair ISO/TC
94/SC 14, Firefighters personal
protective equipment
F
irefighting personnel are putting
their lives on the line ; any work
done by TC 94/SC 14 to ensure
that what they wear and the equipment
they use is better suited to the task
will benefit firefighter safety around
the world. That is our goal, and the
recent meeting of the subcommittee 14
in Adelaide, Australia, served to show
how internationally our group’s work
is burning a trail ahead and progressing knowledge and safety methods to
this end.
Previous annual meetings of TC
94/SC 14 were held in London, Berlin
and Winnipeg. The 2001 meeting in
London occurred after 9/11: it responded
to the obvious need of firefighters for
appropriate PPE (personal protective
equipment). This need has never been
so evident as today, after the bombings
in Oklahoma City (April 1995), 9-11,
the Bali nightclub, Madrid train, and
other events where firefighters have to
cope with very dangerous situations.
The working groups were crafted
according to the risk that firefighters
face. Each working group is working
towards developing a single standard
for PPE that, when used, will protect
the firefighter against the risk.
Subcommittee SC 14 is made
up of five working groups :
WG 1, General requirements
WG 2, Firefighting – structural
WG 3, Wildland firefighting
WG 4, Hazardous materials incidents
WG 5, Non-fire rescue incidents
“ The standards writers
needed to see the
personal protective
equipment in action to
fully understand the end
use by the people wearing
the ensemble”.
What is involved in
rescue ?
Standards Australia along with
the South Australian Metropolitan
Fire Service (SAMFS) hosted the
fourth conference meeting of SC 14
in Adelaide, at the SAMFS Training
Centre, between May 31 and June 4,
2004.
At our meeting, a day was set
aside as a workshop wholly devoted to
work involved in WG 5, Rescue personal protective equipment or Non-fire
personal protective equipment. This
covers road accident rescue, high angle
rescue, urban search and rescue, trench
rescue, confined space rescue, swift
and still water rescue and industrial
rescue. These have been categorized
by WG 5 into four distinct groups;
rope rescue, rescue from water, rescue
from vehicles and plant and special
rescue.
The event was intended to
facilitate discussion and to demonstrate techniques under each of the
four categories of rescue identified
by WG 5. Its purpose was to provide
a greater appreciation of what is
involved in rescue, so that the suite
of standards to be written for rescue
27
Main Focus
The ISO/TC 94/SC 14, Firefighters personal
protective equipment, conference was held
in May-June 2004, in Adelaide, Australia, and
attended by 44 committee members and 20
observers during the week.
Convenors of the Working Groups met for a
pre-conference. A complete day was set aside
for a workshop with practical demonstrations
for WG 5, Rescue (or or Non-fire) personal
protective equipment.
personal protective equipment is based
on assessments of hazard and risk. The
aim was also to lay the foundations for
a forum of discussion amongst rescuers on procedures, techniques, etc. to
support the hazard and risk analysis on
which the ISO standards will be based.
This was run as an observation exercise for standard writers, test houses
and manufacturers.
WG 5 is responsible for rescue,
and the workshop gave this group
greater insight into personal protective equipment (PPE) currently worn
by Emergency Services in South
Australia. They looked at :
• Helmets
• Boots
• Gloves
• Clothing
• Eye protection
• Hearing protection
• Communications, and
• Other Safety Features
28
Ensuring the same
protection level is
afforded to all
The practical demonstrations
given by SAMFS training officers,
and South Australia’s ambulance
services, country fire services, state
emergency services, police special
tactics and response group and aviation rescue and firefighting division
were the key to the success of the
day. Alec Feldman from GD Group
of Companies, Ireland, convener of
WG 5, said ; “ In all my involvement
around the world in formulating
standards, I myself and many of the
others here have never seen anything
like this done before. The standards
writers needed to see the personal
protective equipment in action to fully
understand the end use by the people
wearing the ensemble ”.
“ The acceptance of
International Standards
as an alternative to local
standards is an important
step forward.”
Firefighters, test houses and
manufacturers from around the world
are committed to standards development
and, in this case, firefighter personal
protective equipment. The development
of International Standards and their
acceptance as an alternative to
local standards is an important step
forward. TC 94/SC14 is fostering the
compilation of the work of technical
experts and end-users from a diverse
range of countries and climates that
will ultimately apply the standard to
their own needs – but with the same
protection level afforded to all.
A lot of the protection for
firefighters comes in the form of
technological advances in materials
that the PPE is made from, but we
cannot rely on this alone. Firefighter
PPE must be aligned to training and
safe work practices in order for it to
fully protect the wearer.
The varied disciplines
of rescue mean different
clothing needs
One of the problems ISO/TC 94/
SC 14 has is that in this diverse world
and the variety of areas firefighters
now work in, firefighting itself only
amounts to approximately 10 % of their
total work output. It is also accepted
that the protective performance levels
of PPE set down in current standards
About the author
Mick Smith,
Chair of ISO/TC
94/SC 14, Firefighters personal
protective equipment (PPE),
has been Deputy
Chief Officer of
the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service
(SAMFS) since September 2002. Mick
Smith joined the Fire Service in January
1978, aged 21. In January 1986, he was
promoted to Senior Firefighter, in December 1987 to Station Officer, in July 1998 to
District Officer, and in July 2000 to
Commander. Mick was also the Leader of
the Australian Delegation to ISO/TC 94/
SC 15, Respiratory protection. He has also
been involved in a number of Australian
and Australasian committees on the
subjects.
Test methods for protective clothing
to reduce injury and death
Safe machinery
saves lives
Health care workers that treat and care for the sick and injured, as
well as categories such as rescue personnel, paramedics, veterinarians and
laboratory technicians, may be at risk from biological liquids transmitting
disease. ISO is helping to reduce the risk by two International Standards for
evaluating the effectiveness of their protective clothing.
“ The risk of contamination by viruses such as AIDS, HIV, hepatitis
and others from blood or other body fluids is a constant source of concern
for health care staff, and the two standards provide a tool to assess the barrier capacity of the materials used for these protective garments,” says Fred
Foubert, Deputy Convenor of the ISO group of experts that developed the
standards.
The new standards describe laboratory test methods for measuring the
penetration resistance of clothing materials to blood, body fluids and other
potentially infectious materials. They will enable manufacturers to develop
protective clothing that will reduce the potential of direct skin contact to a
variety of blood-borne viruses by medical personnel.
ISO 16603:2004, Clothing for protection against contact with blood
and body fluids – Determination of the resistance of protective clothing
materials to penetration by blood and body fluids –Test method using synthetic blood, will be used to determine the resistance of materials to synthetic
blood when exposed to physical stresses and pressures exerted on protective
clothing in use.
ISO 16604:2004, Clothing for protection against contact with blood
and body fluids –Determination of resistance of protective clothing materials to penetration by blood-borne pathogens –Test method using Phi-X174
bacteriophage, will help detect micro-holes in materials using a microorganism that is similar to the hepatitis C virus in size and shape but also serves
as a substitute for the hepatitis B virus
and HIV (human immunodeficiency
viruses).
“ There are a large number of
potential users of these standards, or of
people who could benefit from them.
This not only concerns health care
professionals in the strict sense such
as doctors and nurses, but also rescue
workers, paramedics, veterinarians,
people who come into contact with
dead animals, laboratory technicians
etc.”, further noted Mr. Foubert.
“ We hope these test methods
will provide a good basis for the evaluation and further development of materials used in protective apparel for a wide
group of people, especially people our
lives could depend on.”
ISO 16603:2004 and ISO
16604:2004 are the work of ISO technical committee ISO/TC 94, Personal
safety – Protective clothing and equipment, subcommittee SC 13, Protective
clothing.
are aimed at protection against
exposure to “ worst possible ” fire
scenarios, i.e. flashover conditions or
ensembles for wildland conditions.
The rest of the time is occupied by
the various other disciplines of rescue.
From this, fire services have used
combinations of firefighting clothing
levels to accomplish rescue. This is
far from an ideal situation, and indeed
should be considered as inappropriate
PPE. More seriously, this can mean
that for 90 % or more of the work of
firefighters, they are wearing PPE that
could add to the risk of heat stress.
This makes
the work of WG 5
under Alec Feldman
one of the biggest
challenges of TC 94.
The workshop at the
Adelaide conference
assisted in the education of standards writers to the facts of the
situation. Fire services tend to be steeped
in history when it
comes to changing
work practices : and,
after the completion
of this ISO standard,
ISO/CD 11613, it will
now be a huge effort
to educate fire services around the world to
duly implement it.
29
Photo © ISO
Main Focus
Reducing the risk
of hearing damage
years, and the resulting annual social
and economic costs are of the order of
magnitude of 120 million USD. Other
industrialized countries are faced with
similar problems.
By Dr. Klaus Brinkmann, Chair
ISO/TC 43, Acoustics
Noise measurement
results from different
sources
I
n daily life, acoustics is usually
associated with positive sounds
like music and speech communication. Unfortunately, however, acoustics
also has a grave negative side which
becomes obvious when sound turns
into noise. The main objective of ISO/
TC 43, Acoustics, and its subcommittee
1, Noise, is to deal with this negative
side, and to contribute towards a reduction of unwanted effects of sound.
It is said that some 20 % of the
total population in Europe is exposed
to noise levels in their living environment that exceed the acceptable limits
set by the scientific and medical community, leading to manifold physical
and psychological irritations for the
people concerned. Such effects are,
however, difficult to quantify. More
solid data exist for noise-induced
hearing damages at workplaces, however. In Germany, for instance, hearing
impairment has been at the top of all
occupational impairments for many
30
It is beyond the brief of ISO/TC
43 to enforce non-dangerous working
conditions directly – this is an issue
that has to be left to the economy and
to legislation – but TC 43 does provide
a significant contribution towards safer
workplaces by delivering a variety of
proper tools to achieve this goal. Let
us look at these.
“ We have developed
guidance on the design of
low-noise machinery and
equipment and the design
of low-noise workplaces.”
Measurement standards: The
standardization of well-established
and reproducible methods for noise
measurements is the main field of
activity of TC 43/SC 1. Such standards are closely related to noise limits
prescribed by national or regional leg-
islators, and form the basis for decisions on whether criteria are met or
on whether noise reduction measures
have to be initiated by manufacturers
or customers for machinery.
Considering the diversity of
machinery in use (from small handheld devices to big industrial plants),
of given acoustic environments for
measurements (from in situ to laboratory conditions), and the intended use of
data (from characterization and labelling of machinery to evaluation of noise
exposure at workplaces), it is obvious
that no one single procedure is going to
be suitable in all situations. Instead, TC
43/SC 1 offers families of framework
standards for different applications (e.g.
the ISO 3740 family for sound power
measurements, the ISO 9614 series for
sound intensity and the ISO 11200 family for sound pressure at work stations).
Guidance is given on the selection of
the most appropriate standard in a given
situation. To meet the needs of customers who sometimes complain about the
complexity of noise measurements and
their costs, SC 1 offers, wherever possible, a selection of procedures ranging from precision methods providing
most accurate results to simple survey
methods.
In order to get reliable results,
machinery specific data, like operat-
Safe machinery
saves lives
ing and mounting conditions, have to
be specified in addition to the basic
acoustical requirements in so-called
“Noise Test Codes”. SC 1 provides
guidance on how to write a suitable
code, but leaves the work itself in
most cases to product committees
where more relevant knowledge on the
machinery in question is likely to be
available. However, TC 43 establishes
close cooperation with these committees in maintaining its overall responsibility in all questions related to noise.
“ Industrial customers,
noise consultants, safety
inspectors and testing
laboratories appreciate
the assistance of ISO
standards.”
A big challenge at present to the
continuous process of updating existing standards and their adaptation to
new technologies is the proper treatment of measurement uncertainty.
Sufficient knowledge to apply in full
the ISO Guide to the Expression of
Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) is
not always available yet, but it stands
to reason in ISO/TC 43 that measurement results from different sources
cannot be meaningfully compared
without reliable uncertainty data, and
reasonable decisions on the fulfilment
of any criteria cannot be taken without
knowledge of the uncertainty in measurement either.
Selecting hearing
protectors is not easy
Noise reduction: No universally
applicable methods exist to reduce
noise at its source or to shield working places against noise by enclosures,
screens or insulating cabins. For this
reason, the means of noise reduction
are not really a field of standardization,
and any harmonized specifications
bear the inherent risk of hindering
technical development. Nevertheless,
customers often ask for guidance and
– mainly to fulfil demands arising from
the European Machinery Directive
“ We offer help on how
to measure the hearing
function and how to
calibrate audiometric
equipment to achieve
comparable results.”
oped a number of measurement standards suitable for providing comparable
hearing protector performance data
(ISO 4869 series). Moreover, guidance
is given on how to adapt frequencydependent attenuation data of hearing
protectors in a simple way to the noise
spectrum in a given situation.
– TC 43/SC1 has therefore developed
several standards on the design of
low-noise machinery and equipment
(ISO 11688 series), the design of lownoise workplaces (ISO 11690 series)
as well as on performance measurements on sound insulating enclosures
(ISO 11546 series), removable screens
(ISO 11821) and cabins (ISO 11957).
Industrial customers, noise consultants, safety inspectors and testing
laboratories appreciate this assistance.
Personal sound protecting devices: If none of the general noise reduction means described above manage
to exclude the risk of impairing the
hearing of the workers, the ultimate
solution is the use of personal hearing
protectors. The market offers a variety
of products. However, the selection of
the right model in a given noise situation is not an easy task. SC 1 has devel-
Monitoring of the hearing
performance
About the author
Dr. Klaus
Brinkmann has
been chair of
ISO/TC 43,
Acoustics and
TC 43/SC 1,
Noise since
1987. He
received his university degree in
physics in 1963
and then worked for 40 years at Germany’s
National Metrology Institute – initially in a
laboratory for acoustics and finally as head
of a division with diverse scientific and
technical cross-sectional tasks. Besides his
work in ISO/TC 43, he has chaired various
technical committees in international and
regional organizations such as the International Organization of Legal Metrology,
CEN (European Committee for Standardization), and the European Cooperation for
Accreditation (EA).
Hearing
conservation
programmes: Any relationship established
between noise exposure and resulting
hearing damage are only statistically
valid. Individuals may be affected in
quite different ways. There is no doubt,
however, that the damaging effects of
noise build up over a lifetime, and
its impairment to hearing, once it has
occurred, is hard to repair. Because
of this, a permanent monitoring of the
hearing performance of workers concerned is usually indispensable. Such
programmes provide a basis, e.g. for
decisions on additional noise reduction measures, for the selection of most
endangered persons at an early stage,
for diagnosis and therapy of hearing
impairment and, in the worst cases,
for proper financial compensation of
a definitive hearing loss. ISO/TC 43,
again, offers help for such programmes
by providing standards on how to
measure the hearing function (ISO
6189 and ISO 8253 series) and how
to calibrate audiometric equipment
(ISO 389 series) in order to achieve
comparable results. The latter is done
in close cooperation with IEC/TC 29
that is responsible for the performance
specification of such equipment, while
TC 43 specifies an audiometric zero
representing the average threshold of
hearing of young otologically normal
persons around the world.
In sum: though ISO/TC 43 cannot directly reduce the risk of hearing
damage at workplaces and the result of
its work is not really quantifiable, its
contributions to achieve safer working conditions are manifold and are
well acknowledged by all parties
concerned.
31
Main Focus
Photo © ISO
The value
of statistical
techniques
By Lally Marwah, Convenor
of the working group for
ISO/TR 10017:2003, Guidance
on statistical techniques for
ISO 9001:2000
T
he quality of product or service delivered to a customer is
among the key objectives of
every business. To achieve this objective in a consistent and effective manner requires an organization to develop
a comprehensive quality management
system (QMS) which ensures that
customer requirements are captured,
translated into goods or services, and
delivered to the customer’s satisfaction.
Data – and the analysis of data
– is central to the management of quality, as it is to every other aspect of an
enterprise. This is therefore reflected
in all QMS models, the most well
known worldwide being the ISO 9001:
2000 Quality Management System.
Figure 1 – ISO 9001:2000 QMS model
32
The primary elements of the
ISO 9001:2000 QMS model are
depicted in Figure 1. The detailed
requirements that underlie the primary
elements are provided in the ISO 9001:
2000 standard. In the model above, it is
clear that the role of data – specifically
measurement and analysis – is central
to the continual improvement cycle of
the business that holds customer satisfaction as its ultimate objective.
The role of data is similarly
recognized in other well-known QMS
models, notably those associated with
quality awards established in various
parts of the world to promote organizational improvement.
Most well-known in the USA.
is the Malcolm Baldrige Award, which
recognizes business excellence. While
the criteria for this award have evolved
over the years, the effective use of data
has remained a specific and central
requirement.
More familiar to organizations in
Europe is the EFQM Excellence Model
that underlies the European Quality
Award. This model identifies its criteria
under the broad headings of “ enablers ”
and “ results ”, and these are guided by
“ fundamental concepts of excellence ”.
In this case, the role of data is embedded in the guidance provided for award
criteria (“ management by …facts ”).
Another internationally respected quality award is The Deming Application Prize in Japan, which recognizes “ distinctive performance improvement through the application of TQM
(Total Quality Management) ”. This
award not only endorses a management system “ based on facts ”, but
strongly reinforces the role of data
through explicit reference to the use of
statistical techniques to maintain and
improve business performance.
Variability – and the role
of statistical techniques
Some degree of variability is
present in all processes – even under
conditions of apparent stability – and
can be observed at various stages of
the total life cycle of products. Such
variability can be said to ultimately
account for problems or issues that
constitute “ poor quality ”.
The value of statistical techniques stems from their potential
ability – given relevant data associated
with a process or product – to yield
insight into the nature, extent and possible causes of variability. This insight
can subsequently assist in controlling
or reducing variability, and thereby
improve quality.
The value of even elementary
statistical analysis can be illustrated
by a simple example: the maximum
level of noise emitted by a device is
set at 45 decibels. To determine if a
large batch of these devices meets this
requirement, a sample of 36 units is
randomly drawn from the batch, and
their noise-levels are measured and
listed in Figure 2a.
It is clear that none of the units
in the sample exceeds the upper limit
of 45 decibels ; but it is not clear what
proportion of the total batch might
exceed the upper limit.
Safe machinery
saves lives
A graphical plot (Figure 2b)
of the same data shows a picture of
a “distribution” that is more revealing
– it suggests that a small percentage of
the batch may exceed the upper limit.
If certain assumptions can be
made about the data, statistical analysis
allows us to estimate that about 0,22%
of units in the batch will likely exceed
the upper limit, even though none in
the sample exceeded that limit.
Six-Sigma
In many organizations the use
of statistical techniques is left to the
individual initiative of employees and
managers. In recent years, we have
seen the emergence of a formal initiative – broadly termed “ Six-Sigma”
– to enable a more focused deployment
of statistical techniques.
Frequency
12
10
8
6
4
Upper limit
2
0
34
Figure 2a – Noise-level (in decibels)
of sample units
Statistical techniques can help
describe, analyze and model variability, even with limited data. They can
thereby help improve the quality of
products and processes over the total
life-cycle – from design and development, to production and service. Some
commonly encountered applications of
statistical techniques include :
•
Assessing or assuring the quality of
incoming material ;
•
Control of processes in manufacturing and service sectors ;
•
Optimizing complex processes to
achieve desired outcomes ;
•
Assessing or predicting reliability
of products ;
•
Characterizing delivery or response
times in service industry.
Such applications play a vital
role in virtually every sector of industry and commerce. While the focus
here is on assessing and improving
quality, it is worth noting that statistical techniques are also potentially useful in other contexts – for example in
environmental management – to help
establish, achieve and verify performance targets and goals.
36
38
40
42
44 46
Noise level (Db)
Figure 2b – Plot of noise level data
Six-Sigma originated as a statistical concept that calls for a high
level of process capability, so that the
resulting output has a very low level
of defects (in the “parts per million”
range).
Six-Sigma has since evolved
into a broad initiative for driving business improvement. It is characterized
by a high level of executive commitment and support for selected projects,
which in turn are aligned to business
priorities. It also typically involves a
significant level of training in the use
of selected techniques – statistical
and otherwise – to ensure successful
results.
In some corporations Six-Sigma
has served not only to achieve high levels of performance, but has also been a
vehicle for developing skills and capabilities in the organization itself.
ssssss
Guidance on statistical
techniques –
ISO/TR 10017:2003
The effective use of statistical
techniques is greatly influenced by
how well their potential applicability
and benefits are understood by management.
This need is well served by the
recently published ISO TR 10017:
2003 – Guidance on statistical techniques for ISO 9001:2000 . Written
in non-technical language, it identifies well-known statistical techniques
and their potential applications in a
quality management system. It further
provides a clear and concise description of each technique to enable the
reader to assess its applicability and
benefit, and thereby guide the selection
of techniques appropriate to the needs
of the business.
Thus while ISO/TR 10017:
2003 is specifically aligned to the
requirements of the ISO 9001:2000
standard, it can also provide guidance
on the potential role of statistical techniques in the broad context of business
improvement.
About the author
Lally Marwah
is with Global
Quality management at Nortel
Networks, headquartered in
Canada. He has
led Nortel Networks to ISO
9001:2000, and
primed statistical
methods for business improvement at IBM.
Recently, he led the development of ISO/
TR 10017:2003 – Guidance on statistical
techniques for ISO 9001:2000.
Contact : [email protected]
Phone : Canada 905-863-3254
33
Developments and Initiatives
Automobile safety
a dummy
that can
take it all
a series of 33 laboratory tests. Based
on using the ISO/TR 9790 rating scale,
the WorldSID rating is 7,6 (“ Good ” on
a 10 point rating scale). In comparison, other currently used side impact
dummies, US-SID, EuroSID-2RE,
EuroSID-1, and EuroSID-2, have ratings of 2,3, 4,2, 4,4, and 4,7 respectively. The ability of vehicle safety
engineers to utilize the enhanced biofidelity of the WorldSID should lead
to safer vehicle designs, enhanced side
impact protection, and reduce human
injuries in side impacts.
Making WorldSID
available to the
worldwide vehicle
research community
By the WorldSID Task Group 1)
I
n the automotive safety testing field,
the ISO World Side Impact Dummy
(WorldSID) Task Group has completed the design and development of
the WorldSID. Developed under direction of ISO/TC 22, Road vehicles, subcommittee SC 12, Passive safety crash
protection systems, working group WG
5, Anthropomorphic test devices, beginning in 1997, and funded by a worldwide consortium at a cost of about 14
million USD, the dummy production
design was completed on schedule in
March 2004. The WorldSID made its
official debut at a United Nations World
Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle
Regulations (Working Party WP.29)
reception on 22 June in Geneva.
The WorldSID heralds a significant improvement in the ability of
crash dummies to duplicate human
motions and responses in side impact
tests, which should lead to improved
vehicle designs and occupant protection. In addition, WorldSID, which was
developed by hundreds of engineers
and scientists from over 45 organiza-
34
tions in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the
Americas, represents a major breakthrough in worldwide harmonization
of crash test dummies.
“ WorldSID was developed
by hundreds of engineers
and scientists from
over 45 organizations in
Europe, Asia-Pacific and
the Americas.”
Effective vehicle occupant
protection design is very dependent
upon the ability of vehicle engineers
to use crash dummies to predict possible human injuries. The WorldSID’s
biofidelity, a measure of how well
the dummy simulates the forces and
motions of a human, is the best of any
side impact crash dummy to date and
far exceeds the performances of the
others. ISO/TR 9790, Lateral impact
response requirements to assess the
biofidelity of the dummy, specifies
procedures for evaluating side impact
dummy biofidelity performance using
In addition, as a major benefit of harmonization, introduction
of a single universal dummy into
regulations and consumer testing in all
regions would enable manufacturers
to focus and coordinate resources to
improve worldwide occupant safety,
rather than engineering different safety
designs for different dummies.
As an international group, the
WorldSID Task Group operated under
the leadership of a Tri-Chair, consisting
of one individual from the Americas,
Asia Pacific, and European regions of
the world. Each of the Tri-Chairs served
as chair of their respective regional
Advisory Group and shared the chairmanship of the Task Group, which is
made up of worldwide representatives
of research facilities, manufacturers,
government agencies, and dummy
equipment manufacturers. One of the
goals of this worldwide group was to
achieve harmonization via the use of the
same dummy in all worldwide markets.
Humans are physically similar worldwide, so it is logical to have a single
crash dummy to test vehicle safety.
There are presently at least three differ1) Risa Scherer, FORD Motor Company,
Chair of the Americas Advisory Group, Akihiko
Akiyama, Honda, Chair of the Asia Pacific
Advisory Group, Edmund Hautmann, BMW
Group, Chair of the European Advisory Group,
with Ken Wiley, DYNAMIC RESEARCH INC.,
WorldSID Phase II Project Manager.
ent adult male sized side impact dummy
designs in use and at least four more
have been developed. One, used by the
US Department of Transportation, has
served as the crash dummy to be used
in the existing US side impact crash
regulation (FMVSS 214). Others were
developed in Europe and are being used
or are being considered for use in crash
tests under European Regulations. The
WorldSID was developed to allow a single test device to be used for side impact
testing in any regulation around the
world. Such a worldwide-harmonized
dummy could not have been developed
without the international cooperation
exhibited within the Task Group.
To ensure that the WorldSID
is available to the worldwide vehicle research community, the design
details have been documented in ISO/
WD 15830, Design and performance
specifications for a 50 th percentile male
side impact dummy (WorldSID) – Part
1 : Definitions, symbol and rationale,
Part 2 : Mechanical subsystems, Part
3 : Electronical subsystems and Part
4 : User´s manual, which was recently approved by ISO/TC 22/SC 12/
WG 5, and is currently being reviewed
and balloted at the Committee Draft
level by ISO/TC 22/SC 12. This documentation, which consists of nearly
500 pages plus 400 fabrication drawings and CAD files, includes all of the
design details, material specifications,
and performance standards required for
the fabrication of the WorldSID.
Using new materials
to create human-like
performances
The excellent biofidelity of the
WorldSID design is due in part to the
use of new technologies and materials, some of which were not available
for use in older dummy designs. The
WorldSID ribs achieve human-like
deflection performance through the use
of a super-elastic nickel-titanium alloy.
The WorldSID anthropometry is based
on an extensive, diverse 50 th percentile
male driver data set, which resulted in
a more human-like seating position.
In addition the WorldSID can utilize
an optional in-dummy data acquisition
system capable of recording up to 224
data channels, which can lead to a better understanding of the loads applied to
car occupants during side impacts.
“ The excellent biofidelity
of the WorldSID design is
due to the use of
new technologies and
materials.”
The technical performance of the
WorldSID design has been thoroughly tested and verified by extensive testing under a variety of conditions. The
original prototype dummy underwent
nearly two years of biofidelity, vehicle, and component testing. Based on
the prototype test results, a pre-production design was developed which resulted in the modification of nearly every
part of the dummy in order to improve
biofidelity, durability, usability, or other aspects of the dummy. Beginning in
early 2003, 11 pre-production dummies
were fabricated and delivered to each of
the three world regions. The subsequent
worldwide testing of the pre-production
dummies resulted in a few final modifications, which were incorporated into
the final production design. The production design is complete and the production dummy is currently available
for purchase and use.
In total, testing has included
more than 1 000 whole dummy biofidelity, vehicle, and component tests.
This testing was conducted in 16 different test labs and agencies in at least
10 different countries, including testing
by governmental agencies in Canada,
Japan, Australia, the USA, and various
organizations as part of a framework
research programme of the European
Commission.
The future use of WorldSID
in worldwide regulation is now being
reviewed. During its November 2003
meeting, United Nations Working Party
WP.29 agreed that development of the
WorldSID should be encouraged, and
further agreed that EU member states
will make proposals to incorporate the
WorldSID in ECE Regulation 95 once
the WorldSID is shown to be ready for
use, in the expectation that this could
be done before the end of the 36-month
transitional period specified for ES2 in the proposed amendment. This
action ensures that the door remains
open for the WorldSID to be considered for adoption as a replacement in
UN-ECE Regulations for EuroSID-1,
which is scheduled to be phased out
in 2007 in keeping with earlier GRSP
(Global Road Safety Partnership) decisions. Another and separate discussion
involves continued reporting to WP.29/
GSRP, as related to future potential use
of WorldSID in any potential future
Global Technical Regulation for side
impact protection.
The team behind WorldSID with their
“ offspring ” : (from left to right) Jerry Wang,
Member of Design Team, Senior Projects
Manager, First Technology Safety Systems,
USA ; Ken Wiley, Principal Engineer,
Programme Manager, Dynamic Research Inc.,
USA ; Suzanne Tylko, Vehicle Safety Engineer,
Transport, Canada, Secretary of Americas
region, Canada ; John Zellner, Technical
Director, Programme Manager Dynamic
Research Inc., USA ; Risa Scherer, Chair of the
Americas Advisory Group, Anthropomorphic
Test Device Technical Specialist, Ford Motor
Co., USA ; Edmund Hartmann, Chair of the
WorldSID European Advisory Group, Vehicle
Development Passive Safety Testing, BMW
Group, Germany ; Akihiko Akiyama, Assistant
chief Engineer, Honda R and D, Japan ; Klaus
Bortenschlager, Managing Director, PDB,
Germany ; Craig Morgan, Vice-Chair, Denton
Inc., USA, Member of Design Team.
35
Best practice for
information
security
By Ted Humphreys, convenor
of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27, IT
Security techniques /WG 1,
Requirements, security services
and guidelines
I
SO/IEC 17799, Information technology – Code of practice for
information security management,
is the best practice standard for information security management. It provides a broad framework for addressing the day-to-day operational issues a
business needs to deal with to protect
its information from a wide range of
threats and risks. This best practice
offers organizations the basis for
ensuring business continuity, minimizing business damage and maximizing
business investments and opportunities
by deploying information security best
practice.
36
Insights from
organizations applying
the standard
NTT Japan, through the voice of
Mr. Hisao Iizuka, Executive Vice-President and CSO NTT Communications
Corporation, and Mr. Tomokazu Hamaguchi, President and CEO, NTT Data
Corporation, made the following statement about the role and importance that
ISO/IEC 17799 has had in its business.
“ ISO/IEC 17799,” they say,
“ is rapidly being diffused throughout
Japan. It is well implemented especially in the telecommunication industry,
which requires a high level of information security. After the privatization of
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public
Corporation in 1985, Nippon Telegraph
and Telephone Corporation (NTT) has
been through business segmentation by
the type of business. Ever since, all the
NTT groups are nationally and internationally recognized as leading companies in telecommunication industry
with their diverse services. Through
the privatization and segmentation processes, NTT groups needed to develop
new governance systems of their own
in order to secure a fair and effective
competition. As the rapid dissemination
of Internet gained not only the convenience in communication but also the
potential risks of illegal accesses to the
critical information, the significance of
information security is reaffirmed. In
order for the NTT groups to prove to the
society that they are credible in terms
of information security, they chose to
implement information security management system with the concept of
ISO/IEC 17799.”
The statement continues : “ Below
are some of the cases that have implemented this system : NTT Communications – provider for long distance and
international telephone services, Internet
services, and solution services (management consulting service and system
integration service) – has been certified,
with ISMS (Information Security Management Systems) at the solution service
department with 4 000 employees. This
case is one of the largest cases in the
world. The other departments are being
certified subsequently.
“ NTT Docomo Groups,
mobile telecommunication service
providers, are individually certified
with ISMS in each regional office,
including NTT Docomo Kansai.
“ The primary service of NTT
Data is System Integration (SI). Its
R&D department for ISMS was firstly
certified and continues to expand the
certification as SIer to sector departments including the Public Sector Service Division.
“ All the NTT groups that
obtained such certification by implementing the ISO/IEC 17799 concept
reaffirm that it is not a one-time only
counter-measure but that it is crucial to
maintain those management processes.”
Protection of information
within multiple fields
ISO/IEC 17799 addresses best
practice for the protection of information applied, for example, to the Human
Resource department, operational systems and processing facilities, third
party services, business applications,
About the author
Ted Humphreys
s convenor of
he working
roup of ISO/
EC JTC 1/SC
7, IT security
echniques,
esponsible for
he maintenance
nd future develpment of ISO/
IEC 17799 and other information security
management standards. He is also Director
and Founder of the ISMS International
User Group, the user community forum
for ISO/IEC 17799.
“ Australian business
and government departments commonly use
ISO/IEC 17799 to guide
in the implementation of
best practice information
security controls.”
in the business world – and is crucially important to PCCW in protecting its own, and customers’, information assets. Applying ISO/IEC 17799
and attaining certification to the British standard BS 7799-2 (Part 2 of
ISO/IEC 17799, at present undergo-
Services provided
by third parties
Businesses around the world
depend upon services provided by
third parties, in particular their use in
a growing market for managed data
services. This type of business relies
heavily on information security for a
variety of information handling and
processing controls, ensuring the availability and continuity of information
services and many others for managing the risks related to the provision of
third party services. The following is a
view on this by one of the global businesses in this market.
Photo © ISO
Internet services, business continuity,
and compliance with legislation. The
risks addressed by the best practice
specified in ISO/IEC 17799 apply to
most sectors of business ; this standard
thus provides a “ common language ”
for information security risk management. Also the flexible design of the
standard enables it to be used by any
organizations of any size.
The telecommunications sector is a prime example of a major
user of information security to protect and manage a range of networks
and network services. ISO/IEC 17799
provides a framework for protecting
information systems, communications
and services deployed by this sector.
All organizations, both commercial
and governmental, rely in some way
or other on network services to carry
out their business. This dependability
means that security of these services
becomes a key aspect – hence the
take-up of the standard by many network operators around the world that
clearly confirms its importance to the
sector. This is additionally borne out
by the active collaboration between
ISO/IEC and ITU-T on the future
development of this standard. Says
Dale Johnstone, Principal Consultant
Risk Management, PCCW, a leading
network operator in Hong Kong.
“ Security of information as
it is moved between computers and
networks has become a high priority
ing development) demonstrates our
commitment to protecting information
in our possession, and establishes a
qualification that all IT&T companies
should strive to achieve. Increased privacy controls by governments in the
countries where PCCW operates is an
important issue. As legislation regulating how information is secured and
protected becomes increasingly complex around the world, PCCW must be
positioned well to respond effectively
– and adoption of ISO/IEC 17799 and
BS 7799-2 enables the company to do
exactly that.”
Grant Geyer, Vice-President,
Global Managed Security Services,
Symantec Corporation, USA, comments : “ Outsourcing critical infrastructure, especially security, is not
a decision easily made by corporations. There is a need for providers to
not only deliver extremely high value
and quality, but more importantly, an
imperative to ensure our clients trust
how we’re running the business. Using
ISO/IEC 17799 has enabled Symantec
to provide our managed service customers with the assurances they need
about our ability to secure their information. Our customers can see that
37
we use globally accepted best practice, with processes that they are able
to examine for themselves. Internally,
it has improved our management of
people, processes and technology and
has meant that information security is
ingrained in the way we work.”
Information security in
the financial sector
The banking institutions are a
well-established user of information
security whether it be the traditional
means of banking or the more modern
on-line banking deploying Internet
technology. Several banks around
the world are now also applying the
best practice in ISO/IEC 17799 ; these
include CITI Bank Asia Pacific, ING
Banking Group, Istituto Bancario SanPaolo, Misys International Banking, to
name but a few. The Federal Reserve
Bank in New York has been one of the
more recent adopters of the ISO/IEC
17799 standard and, in addition, their
information security management system based on this standard has undergone an independent third party audit.
Ruud Goudriaan, Corporate
Legal Compliance & Security, ING/,
Amsterdam, says : “ ING has decided
in an early stage (1997) to base their
Information Security Policies and
organization on the BS 7799. The
good foresight of that decision is demonstrated by the approval in 2000 as
ISO/IEC standard and the worldwide
recognition as reference standard. ING
has implemented ISO/IEC 17799 based
policies in all its business units.”
Government agencies
need security also
The use of ISO/IEC 17799 is
not limited to businesses. Governments
have also taken to using the standard in
many different areas of their business.
This includes government agencies, in,
for example, Australia, Finland, Germany, India, Japan, United Kingdom,
and the USA. There are states in the
USA that have adopted the standard,
as for example, the State of Georgia
38
that has adopted it as the basis for all
State Enterprise Information Security
Policies, and the State of Maine has
adopted it for all State Government
entities as their security policy. In
other countries, health authorities,
the criminal justice system, trade and
industry departments, police services,
social services and many more government entities have adopted ISO/IEC
17799.
John Snare, Chair, Australian ISMS Users’ Group, expresses his appraisal thus : “ Many business and government organizations
know that they have unresolved information security problems. However,
cost-effective and prioritized action
to bring these problems under control is a major challenge. Australian business and government departments commonly use ISO/IEC 17799
to guide in the implementation of best
practice information security controls.
The use of ISO/IEC 17799 is increasingly being coupled with implementation of a management system, based on
AS/NZS 7799.2, Information security
management – Specification for information security management systems,
to prioritize implementation activities and ensure that controls actually
achieve their intended objectives.”
A common language for
a best practice standard
ISO/IEC 17799 is proving to
be the global best practice standard
for information security. It has made
its mark as a “ common language ”, as
testified by the take-up by businesses
across a broad spectrum of market
sectors. This standard, like other
standards within ISO, is now going
through the regular revision process.
This is important to ensure that it
continues to remain the “ common
language ” for information security
providing best practice for the common good of all businesses worldwide
– irrespective of whether for the small,
medium or large market sector.
Legislation and
partners in
consumer
protection
By Giles Allen, Editor
of ISO Focus
G
lobalization has rapidly created
a pressing need for a system
that protects the international
consumer in an effective way. To create global regulations as such, however, is a virtually insurmountable challenge. Therefore a softer approach,
using the toolbox of instruments that
exists at present to their best effect and
in the correct doses already represents
notable progress in the right direction.
It was precisely the mix of
these tools that was at the heart of the
debates at the workshop “ Regulation,
Co-regulation and self-regulation
– who is at risk ? Legislation and
standardization – partners in consumer protection ” held in Prague, Czech
Republic, on 17 May, in conjunction
with the COPOLCO (ISO Committee
on consumer policy) plenary. Attended
by 100 delegates from 29 countries, the
workshop provided a good occasion to
look at the subtle inter-relations and
interaction between regulations and
standards
standards, and how and where they can
help each other in a common cause of
protecting the consumer. For, as Ms.
Caroline Warne, Chair of COPOLCO
said, opening the workshop : “ There is
great concern abroad about the effect
on consumers of the shift towards a
less regulated environment.”
The issue of trust
There were notable differences
between developed, developing and
transitional economies, even if disparities were getting less. Mr. Otakar
Kunc, Director of the Czech Standards
Institute said how pleased he was
about the holding of the workshop in
the new circumstances in the Czech
Republic, particularly as “ the recent
progression in consumer matters here
is promising for consumers and for
standardization.”
Mr. Josef Tržický, General
Director of the Section for Consumer
Protection and Internal Market of the
Ministry of Industry and Trade, Czech
Republic, saw in the heterogeneous
Forum the possibility of contributing
to a more efficient participation of consumers in the creation of international
standards. “ The level of consumer
confidence,” he said, “ is directly proportionate to their involvement in the
development of the standards.”
There was some way to go
before the European consumer felt
Photo © ISO
The beauty and
hospitality of a
renovated city
of Prague, with
its refound
confidence in the
future, proved the
ideal setting for a
reflection on consumer issues of
particular import
and relevance
to economies in
transition as well
as to developing
countries.
really at ease in cross-border shopping
and, at the heart of everything was the
issue of trust – but that was only one
reason, among other more practical
and down-to-earth causes. The follow-up of complaints handling, taking
a company in another country to court,
in a foreign language with different
laws was more than most Europeans
felt capable of undertaking with ease,
said Dr. Lothar Maier, President of
DIN Consumer Council. Shopping
outside a consumer’s country was
still the exception: 86 % of Europeans
had not shopped across borders in the
last year, yet a comparison of prices
between countries highlighted big
advantages. A bottle of mineral water
that could vary in price between the
different national outlets by 44 %; but
between countries of the Union, that
difference soared to 300 %.
The European Union is trying
to use the tool of standardization to
contribute to change the behaviour of
consumers in general and in cross-border shopping in particular. But, asked
Lothar Maier, is regulation, and what
sort of regulation, also necessary to
protect the consumer ? “ Self-regulation is an option but always on the
condition of effective enforcement,”
he said. “ Co-regulation could be a
precious contribution to fair commercial practices, but only on the
condition of the establishment of an
effective enforcement mechanism. The
results of entirely voluntary application without effective enforcement are
discouraging.”
For the Czech Republic, that
had just integrated the European
Union, the question of new approaches to consumer protection was of
immediate relevance, as the country
adjusted itself to the new situation.
As explained by Mr. Libor Dupal,
Director of the Czech Consumer
Association, the present European consumer policy covers a broad spectrum
of areas, with measures of a regulatory
nature as well as tools for voluntary
use (technical standards and self-regulation instruments).
“ The voice of
the consumer
is critical to
achieving ISO’s
goals,” said
Oliver Smoot,
ISO President.
“ In ISO’s mission statement,
we make reference to ‘ global
relevance ’ ;
this includes
relevance to
consumers,
and looking for
globally
acceptable
solutions.”
Mr. Dupal claimed that one
of the most significant tools for the
implementation of the European
policy should be an effective application of the alternative dispute resolution systems (ADR), including the
operation of the European Network
for Extra Judicial Settlement of consumer disputes. ADR he defined as
“ amicable, out-of-court juridical dispute resolution, used in most countries
on a voluntary basis, and dependent
on self-regulatory mechanisms and
principles ”. “ We have analysed the
situation in the Czech Republic and
the EU, and are trying to develop new
structures for the application of this
mechanism.” Mr. Dupal stressed how
39
Developments
and Initiatives
keen he was that ISO keep up the work
in the areas of complaints handling
and dispute resolution initiated within
COPOLCO, and how to make ADR
attractive to both parties.
Ms. Anna Fielder, Director
of the Office for Developed and
Transition Economies, Consumer
International, studied the notions of
regulation, self-regulation and coregulation, specifically in the context
of the transition economies. While
some 12 different definitions of “ selfregulation ” existed, she retained three
broad categories which were voluntary
(where business regulates itself) and
delegated self-regulation where the
state delegates to a professional body
and provides it with a licensing system. Finally there was co-regulation,
a hybrid system where the state sets
the framework, then industry chooses
to join in or not.
Historically the consumer
movement has been wary of the effectiveness of self-regulation, considering
it as a helpful adjunct to state-led regulation rather than an answer in itself.
This was because the necessary corollaries of effective regulation – followup oversight, enforcement and redress
– have generally been lacking in
self-regulatory systems. In developed
economies, consumer organizations
themselves play an important function
in monitoring or forcing the market
to deliver – examples range from car
crash safety tests that exceed international standards to setting up various
codes and schemes for effective service delivery.
The situation was different in
transition economies : in the area of
product standards, for instance, they have
changed from a prior situation of strongly regulated pre-market entry product
certification to one of “ presumption of
conformity ”, in order for the new members to align with the EU system, and for
the developing economies to conform to
the principles laid out in the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade.
40
Photo © ISO
The consumer and
the tools available
“ Though consumers have
been sceptical about the use of selfregulation essentially for the ‘ no teeth ’
reasons, we are coming to think that
hybrid or co-regulation is the form
most likely to deliver for consumers ”, she said. “ We are also seeking
to encourage ISO to look at codes
for ‘ effective stakeholder representation ’.”
Closing the gap between
incompatibilities
For Dr. Elizabeth Nielsen,
Health Products and Food Branch
Health Canada, it has become virtually
unthinkable to reach an “ international
legislation,” so complex and divergent
are regulations at the national level.
Another means needed therefore to
be found to bring the world’s systems
nearer together and to close the gap
between incompatibilities between
national laws the world over. Since
International Standards are one of several well-established tools that exist,
they can play an extremely useful role
in harmonizing and aligning systems
by playing a “ go-between ” role, and
getting legislations throughout the
world to pull together in the same
direction. For Elizabeth Nielsen, it was
preferable not to think of standards and
regulations as two separate species, but
as two in a range of interlocking tools
that were to be used in varying combinations according to need and purpose.
Self-regulation has its sceptics,
convinced that rogue traders would deal
a final blow to ambient “ permissiveness ”. However it has its proponents
also : Professor Tsuneo Matsumoto,
Graduate School of Law, Hitotsubashi
University, Japan, described how
consumer protection is today constituted by “ soft law ” in Japan, made
up of various tools “ co-regulation ” or
“ self-regulation ”. Comparing various
national experiences, he considered
how such systems of self-regulation
or co-regulation successfully help
safeguard consumer interests by the
best mix of tools, according to country
and situation.
Consumers’ main concerns
relate to safety and health, lack of information, fraud, inability to understand
complex transactions, and rational decisions versus high-pressure sales techniques. From the consumer perspective
it is particularly important to underpin
standards by effective state regulation.
“ There are many different
approaches to consumer protection,”
said Prof. Matsumoto, “ Government
legislation (regulation), cooperative
mechanisms between the public and
private sectors (co-regulation) and
voluntary adherence by businesses to
a code of ethics and self-declaration
of conformity, enforced by peers or
by independent consumer movements.
Standards have a role in all three systems.”
A long way to reassure
the consumer ?
Getting the consumer conscious
and involved in consumer protection
begins in education, said Ms. Nadežda
Klabusayová, who gave her experience
of teaching of quality and consumer
protection at the Department of Business Administration of the University of
Ostrava (Czech Republic). Getting such
consumer demands into students’ ways
of thinking was a highly successful
way of later involvement and automatic
consumer reactions among tomorrow’s
leaders of opinion. Furthermore, quality
begins as a mindset which is best cultivated early in life. Ms. Klabusayová
emphasized the importance of inculcating the quality ethic as a backdrop to
technical capability in business.
Despite the noticeable improvement in the security of the Internet,
there was a long way to go before the
ž
ž
consumer felt totally reassured. Was it
possible, asked Mr. Steven Cole, Senior
Vice-President, Council of Better
Business Bureaus, USA, to count on
the self-discipline of the trades-people to ensure the Internet themselves,
since there was no enforcement ? Was
self-regulation an effective tool ? The
response varied, he said ; systems such as
the trustmark concept of shopping on the
internet with recognized and approved
traders, had has considerable success in
the USA ; trustmark programmes were a
three-legged stool, requiring high standards, accessible dispute resolution and
a trustmark. Not all the problems had
been solved, however, he said, such as
the issue of funding of systems, keeping
them independent and trusted. However,
argued Steven Cole, the trustmark concept and global trustmark alliance are
timely and useful, despite some improvements and issues to resolve, namely a
heightened focus on dispute resolution
implementation, a need to rethink forms
of self-regulation and the possible role
of international standard-setting from
organizations such as ISO. The Internet
and e-commerce companies are global,
whence a need for consistency, flexibility and high standards.
Breakout groups then tackled
themes of particular concern. Talking
about consumer participation, attendees noted the greater reliance being
placed on standards at both national
and international level, but remarked
how it was growing even more difficult
to find and fund consumer representatives, and looked at alternative funding
models. The added credibility, and
thus value, given to standards developed with consumer input needed to
be constantly voiced. Participants suggested that the development of a set of
criteria for participation, with further
benchmarking against such criteria,
and inclusion in the new ISO Business
Plans of a template with a clear funding mechanism for consumer representation could be a way forward.
Environmental issues were very
special case, and the second breakout
group recognized their importance but
stressed the need for political will to
address environmental concerns, that
were particularly difficult to implement for developing countries due to
the costs of certification. There was a
need for a mechanism to make environmental standards more effective,
and to carry out a survey to study how
they were being implemented. This
concerned in particular the ISO 14020
series of standards that were not being
used sufficiently.
E-commerce, that theoretically
could open the world to consumers,
still suffered from the handicap of
the difficulty of access for developing countries, as well as an overdose
of information, with its accompanying unreliability and the insecurity
involved in the transaction. The OECD
Guidelines on e-commerce was an
excellent start, and some good national
standards exist, but the group felt that
an ISO standard on e-commerce would
gain wider acceptance.
Standards – an indispensable cog in the
regulatory mechanism
The workshop sought to explore
effective mechanisms by which voluntary standards interact with regulatory regimes to ensure that products and
services meet consumers’ expectations
for safety, performance, fitness of purpose, pricing redress and other criteria.
In the course of the workshop,
the issue of enforcement was constantly either present or in the wings.
Among the array of instruments exercising varying degrees of “ constraint ”,
along with regulations and self-regulations, came voluntary and consensusbased International Standards, one of
the most useful of these tools. The
level of consensus that transcends
national frontiers that is provided by
ISO standards propels them forward as
actors on the international stage ; they
can credibly support national policy
goals and be relevant and useful in the
increasingly international market.
Speakers, moderators and rapporteurs at
the workshop, from left to right, top row to
bottom. Josef Tržický, General Director of the
Section for Consumer Protection and Internal
Market of the Ministry of Industry and Trade,
Czech Republic ; Bruce Farquhar, Consultant,
Canada ; Anne Ferguson, Vice Chair, Consumer
Representation in Standardization, British
Standards Institution (BSI-CPC) ; Otakar Kunc,
Director, Czech Standards Institute (CSNI),
Czech Republic; Caroline Warne, COPOLCO
Chair ; Naděžda Klabusayová, Associate
Professor, Technical University of Ostrava,
Department of Business Administration,
Czech Republic ; Second row : Steve Williams,
Standards Officer, TTSB, Trinidad and Tobago ;
Herman Schipper, Head International and
European Affairs, NEN, Netherlands ; Tsuneo
Matsumoto, Japanese Consumer Council,
Graduate School of Law, Hitosubashi
University, Japan ; Bill Dee, Representative,
Standards Australia International ; Steven J.
Cole, Senior Vice President, General Counsel,
Council of Better Business Bureaus, USA ;
Libor Dupal, Director, Czech Consumer
Association, Czech Republic ; Bottom
row : Agnes Ratz-Ludanyi, MSZT, Hungary ;
Elizabeth Nielsen, Health Products and
Food Branch, Health Canada ; Anna Fielder,
Director, Office for Developed and Transition
Economies, Consumers International ; Dana
Kissinger, Secretary ISO/COPOLCO. Absent :
Lothar Maier, University of Applied Sciences,
President, DIN Consumer Council, Germany.
41
The unrelenting advance
of video compression
By Leonardo Chiariglione, Digital
Media Strategist, Convenor of
ISO / IEC JTC 1 / SC 29 / WG 11,
the Moving Pictures Experts Group
(MPEG) working group
E
Photo © ISO
ver since people first realized
that digital technologies could
be used to store and transmit
video signals with greater fidelity, the
problem of the amount of bits required
to do so became apparent. The analogue television signals still in common use today have a bandwidth of
about 5 MHz. Converted into bits, this
generates 216 Mbit/s (million bits per
second) some 20 times more than the
bitrate of a good ADSL modem !
Ask smart people to solve a
well-formulated problem and you are
bound to get a solution. This was the
case of video compression. The problem was to reduce the number of bits/s
required to store or transmit video
signals. The smart people were the
thousands of researchers who invested
time and effort to reduce the bitrate of
digital video to low levels.
It did not happen overnight.
The first applications were driven
by the idea that people would like to
communicate with video in addition to
audio. In the early 1990s the first standard produced by the Moving Picture
Experts Group or MPEG (Working
Group 11 of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29)
targeted storage of digital video on
compact disc (CD). MPEG-1, as the
standard is called, is used in hundreds
of millions of Video CD players.
In the mid-1990s, MPEG developed MPEG-2 that
is being used in
hundreds of millions of digital
television set top
boxes and Digital
Versatile Disc
(DVD) players.
In the late 1990s,
MPEG developed
MPEG-4 that is
widely used to
move digital video
files on the web, to
view video on cell
phones or to store
digital video in a
computer-friendly
fashion.
All these
standards
were
characterized by
advances in the
technologies used
to compress video
signals. In 2000,
MPEG
started
inquiring if new
technologies had
42
been developed that would further
compress video. In 2001, a Call for
Evidence was issued asking the industry to bring evidence that video could
be further compressed compared to
MPEG-4. The evidence confirmed the
validity of the request, and the decision
to develop a new part (part 10) of the
MPEG-4 standard – called Advanced
Video Coding (AVC) – was taken,
this time in collaboration with ITU-T
(as had been the case for MPEG-2).
ISO/IEC 14496-15:2004, Information
technology – Coding of audio-visual objects – Part 15 : Advanced Video
Coding (AVC), was approved as FDIS
in July 2003.
AVC – video compression
of the new generation
There is an understandable
tendency on the part of salesmen to
overstate the quality of their “ wares ” ;
MPEG could similarly boast the wonders of its new “ product ”. This is not,
however, what MPEG does for the
audio and video compression standards it develops. When a compression
standard nears completion, “ verification tests ” are run, using sophisticated
techniques that transform the results of
a large number of subjective evaluations into objective measures. For AVC
it was found that on average the com-
About the author
Dr. Leonardo
Chiariglione is
Convenor of the
Moving Pictures
Experts Group
(MPEG), the
working group
which produced
the MPEG-1,
MPEG-2 and
MPEG-4 standards that support rich-media applications
on diverse delivery systems, MPEG-7, that
supports advanced search and retrieval of
audio-visual content and is developing
MPEG-21, the Multimedia Framework
and MPEG-A, the MultimediaApplication
Formats.
Photo © ISO
pression performance of AVC is twice
that of MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 part 2
(the original MPEG-4 standard).
This is an impressive result
and there is a lot of excitment in the
industry at the possibilities opened
up by this new standard. AVC can
be used in at least two new ways : to
replace older standards for the same
type of application or to use the new
standard for new applications. One
of the possibilities of the former is
to use AVC as the video compression of the new generation DVD that
is being discussed in the appropriate
fora. Another is to use AVC to provide improved picture quality on such
constrained-bandwidth applications as
video on mobile devices.
When a new technology replaces an old one in widely deployed applications and devices there is always
some resistance because of the need
to cater for the transition between the
old and the new. This is not, however,
the case for new applications, such as
digital video on the Internet, for which
there have been little more than trials.
AVC can be the video compression
technology of choice – along with
another successful MPEG technology for audio compression, Advanced
Audio Coding (AAC) for what is likely
to become the marriage between networks and media.
Is this the end of the story for
video compression ? Most likely not.
In December 2003, MPEG issued a
Call for Proposals for video compression technologies with “ scalable ”
features, and in March 2004 received
a large number of responses. MPEG
is now busy working on a new video
compression standard that is expected
to see the light toward the end of
2006.
Get ready for more compression
with more features !
ISO to go ahead
with guidelines for social
responsibility
By Roger Frost, Press and Communication Manager,
ISO Central Secretariat
I
SO is to develop an International
Standard for social responsibility.
The objective is to produce “ a
guidance document, written in plain
language which is understandable and
usable by non-specialists ” and not
intended for use in certification.
The decision was taken at a senior ISO management meeting on 24-25
June 2004 in Stockholm, following an
international conference in the Swedish
capital earlier the same week on 2122 June. The conference provided a
platform for stakeholders to give their
views on whether ISO should proceed
with work addressing the social responsibility (SR) of organizations and, if so,
what form it should take.
Based on the consistent and
supportive feedback from the conference, ISO concluded that a further feasibility study was unnecessary and that
SR work should be “ undertaken immediately ”. In taking its decision, ISO
acknowledges that “ social responsibility involves a number of subjects and
issues that are qualitatively different
from the subjects and issues that have
traditionally been dealt with by ISO. ”
Since developing an SR standard will bring new and more varied
categories of stakeholders into the
ISO system, ISO recognizes that the
work will need to be carried out “ in an
innovative manner ”, but insists that this
remains “ consistent with ISO’s fundamental principles ”, including openness
and transparency in the way it works.
Bryden commented : “ ISO’s decision is
based on a thorough analysis of trends
and initiatives relating to social responsibility and the active involvement of all
interested groups of stakeholders. The
consensus achieved on the way forward
for an ISO contribution illustrates the
broadening of the scope of our work
and the recognition that today, ISO not
only provides a growing portfolio of
technical standards, but may also supply solutions and guidance on social
and environmental issues in the global
economy. This new venture is obviously of great interest to stakeholder groups
such as consumers, NGO’s, labour and
regulators whose participation and input
ISO both needs and values.”
To develop the SR standard,
ISO will set up a new working group
answering directly to ISO’s Technical
Management Board (TMB) that oversees the activities of the organization’s
186 standards-developing technical subcommittees. As a first step, it has formed
43
Ms. Ziva Patir, ISO Vice-President
(technical management).
a task force to propose the terms of reference and operating processes for the
working group in time for consideration
at the TMB meeting in September 2004.
Even before that date, the
national standards institutes that comprise ISO’s worldwide membership are
being asked to submit by 15 August
2004 their candidates for a twinned
leadership and secretariat to the SR
working group, linking developed and
developing countries. The experts to
the working group will be appointed by
the ISO members from all stakeholder
categories. Related international and
broadly based regional organizations
will also be able to appoint experts.
Easier participation for
experts from developing
countries
ISO intends to make it easier for
experts from developing countries to
participate, as well as from other stakeholder categories with limited resources,
such as nongovernmental organizations,
consumer associations and others. A post
will be created within the working group
specifically to deal with stakeholder participation, including funding.
In deciding to develop an SR
guidance standard, ISO emphasizes that
it is intended to add value to, and not
to replace, existing inter-governmental
agreements with relevance to social
responsibility, such as the United Nations
Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
and those adopted by the International
Labour Organization (ILO), and other
UN conventions. Furthermore, it recognizes the need to develop an agreement
with ILO on cooperation between the
two organizations in the area of social
responsibility.
44
Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, who
officially opened the ISO conference on social
responsibility in Stockholm, is presented with
a bouquet by Swedish Standards Institute
(SIS) Chair Håkan Murby.
The ISO SR conference, which
was hosted by the Swedish Standards
Institute (SIS), drew 355 participants
from 66 countries, including 33 developing countries, representing the principal
stakeholder groups : business, government, labour, consumers, international
and nongovernmental organizations.
The major focus for discussion at
the conference was provided by the work
of the advisory group (AG) on social
responsibility which ISO had set up in
early 2003 to help it decide on eventual involvement in SR. The group had
developed an extensive report including
an overview of SR initiatives worldwide
identifying issues that should be taken
into account by ISO. It had concluded
that ISO should go ahead with work on
SR on condition that a set of key recommendations are met. On the day after the
conference, ISO met the AG to discuss
the conference feedback and review the
report and recommendations.
At its own meeting on 24-25
June, ISO basically accepted the AG’s
recommendations and addresses them
in its resolution 35/2004 to launch ISO
work on SR that takes fully into account
the elements identified by the AG in its
report and by other stakeholders at the
conference.
Daniel Gagnier, Chair Advisory Group on Social
Responsibility, and Senior Vice-President,
External and Corporate Affairs, Alcan Inc.
Lars Flink, Managing Director, Swedish
Standards Institute (SIS), hosts to the
conference.
The full resolution can be consulted on the SR conference Web site
created by ISO, along with the presentations made at the event, conference
photos and the AG’s report and recommendations. For the future, ISO will
consider developing a Web site as a
means of disseminating good practice in
the field of social responsibility.
Considering that the AG has
successfully completed its mission, ISO
has now disbanded the group, thanking
it and its Chair, Daniel Gagnier, Senior
Vice-President, External and Corporate
Affairs, Alcan Inc., for their achievements.
ISO Deputy Secretary-General
Kevin McKinley commented : “ The
extent to which the issues raised by
the different stakeholder groups at the
Stockholm conference mirrored those
identified in the AG’s report confirms the
value of the work it has carried out for
ISO over an 18-month period. Now it is
up to ISO to address these issues and face
the challenge
of
developing practical
guidelines that
benefit all the
stakeholders in
social responsibility.”
Kevin McKinley,
ISO Deputy
SecretaryGeneral.
Photos by Måns Diedrichs, Corporate
Communications, Swedish Standards
Institute (SIS).
Coming up
Photo © ISO
Developments and
Initiatives
Main Focus
Food technologies
The ISO Focus dossier on food technologies brings together the essence of
what is happening in standardization in
the varied and heterogeneous aspects of
the food industry.
In each country, the purveyance to its
population of food in sufficient quantity,
of suitable quality and with inherent
safety is a basic political requirement of
that country, and thus the production, the
possible export, and the necessary
import of food represent a prime focus
of interest universally. International standardization in the agriculture and food
areas started in 1947, and today ISO
today has some 640 standards “ under its
belt ” in the field.
ISO/TC 34, Food products, serves as a
platform for developing ISO International Standards, and harmonizing the relations with those of other international
organizations such as the CODEX Alimentarius Commission and the International Dairy Federation.
The most frequent demand to ISO/TC
34 and its subcommittees is to develop
International Standards related to analysis and test methods, and approximately
65 % of standards cover such methods.
Most product-orientated subcommittees
of TC 34 have developed one or more
standards for sampling of their products.
Another important area : ISO’s vocabulary standards are comprehensively used
in world trade and are accepted by other
international organizations.
“ Chemicalization ” of agriculture and
the food industry has significantly
increased the yields and food production. However, with it has come a
widespread fear of chemicals, and the
demand is rising for more effective
agricultural technologies, that maintain
the nutritive value of the raw materials,
and that preserve the environment.
Food safety has become a universal
and absolute demand. In view of this,
the trend of work is changing with
respect to transgenic materials, new
molecular biological methods, markers,
techniques and technologies. Changes
are expected due to the need to
describe novel qualitative and quantitive methods for the detection of
Genetically Modified materials, and to
follow them in food, in human organisms and in the environment.
TC 34’s work, that covers all the “ traditional ” fields (cereals, tea and coffee,
milk and milk products, meat and
poultry, fruits and vegetables, edible fats
and oils, etc.), now tackles new and specific challenges in regard to genetically
modified organisms (GMOs) and traceability in the food chain. Good Manufacturing Practice has become a must for
the industry and consumers : ISO is finalizing ISO 22000, Food safety management systems – Requirements throughout
the food chain. And in the light of the
accidents such as dioxin spills and the
BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or “ Mad Cow Disease ”) affair, the
need for International Standards for
methods of analysis for feed are growing.
Standards of practice in dentistry.
In the last decade, ISO/TC 106, Dentistry’s work has increased substantially,
with new work items demanding both
new standards and the revision of existing specifications, mainly due to the
flood of new products and clinical
techniques. Three main trends are responsible : firstly, public appreciation of
the importance of good teeth to a
youthful and aesthetic appearance ;
Photo © ISO
secondly, the increasing desire for cosmetic or aesthetic dentistry which involves minimal size fillings and toothcoloured filling materials such as polymer-ceramic composites and ceramics.
Thirdly, the exponential increase in the
use of titanium implants embedded in
the jaws as a foundation for the replacement of a missing tooth or teeth.
A world of applications for gas
calibration. The work of ISO/TC 158,
Analysis of gases, is mainly concerned
with the calibration of gases and gas
mixtures, and its market is that of the
calibration of gas market, although the
direct influence of what it does affects
the whole gas market.
Photo © ISO
All gas analysing equipment needs calibration, and these standards have a big
impact on a wide range of applications
where accurate knowledge of gas mixture composition is required. This can be
for demonstration of compliance with
regulations, for trade purposes, for
industrial purposes, or for environmental
purposes.
Whether it’s Autumn or Spring
in your region...
...the environment is global.
001
4
1
ISO
ISO 1
4004
Coming this Winter (or Summer),
the revised ISO 14001* and ISO 14004*.
The global EMS standards.
www.
.org
* Already available as FDIS (Final Draft International Standards)

Crash test dummy gains international acceptance Consumers

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