American National Standards Institute
(ANSI)
Description
ANSI: Keeping Quality and Safety First
In a world where thousands of products and services are used daily—if only to mention a few, for instance, light bulbs, internet cables, medical devices or software, construction tools, food packaging to name but a few—it never comes to mind how all these things work together properly or are safe for use and of a certain level of quality until ANSI comes in the picture.
Most people don’t know or hear the name every day; however, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is quite significant in improving and making our lives safer, easier, and more organized.
What You Should Learn About ANSI
ANSI is a non-profit, US-based organization for devising and overseeing standards. Basically, standards are unanimously agreed rules or guidelines for making, testing, or using things.
ANSI doesn’t always write the standards themselves. Rather, they work with industries, technical experts, engineers, government groups, and others to make sure the standards are strong, useful, and fair.
Founded in 1918, ANSI has been helping improve product safety, quality, and compatibility for over 100 years.
Think if every company made light bulbs in different sizes. There’d be no way to know for certain that a bulb would fit your lamp. Or, if rules were not followed by software programs, then one’s phone or computer wouldn’t run properly.
Standards resolve these problems. They ensure that:
- Products are compatible with one another
- Tools and parts are interchanged
- Things are safe to use
- Quality is uniform
- Business is easy to transact from one country to another
Real-Life Examples
- Standardizing plugs and sockets so that they are a correct fit
- Keeping what we eat healthy and safe to ingest
- Data standards on Internet systems are what keep networks running smoothly
ANSI-approved standards are used in healthcare, construction, transportation, technology, education, and many other areas.
What Is ANSI?
These are some of the major roles of ANSI:
1. Approved Standards
ANSI facilitates the promulgation of consensus standards and is not primarily engaged in developing most standards. It reviews and approves standards developed by others, checking for openness, balance, and due process. When these rules are met, ANSI grants them “approval” status.
2. Representation Globally
ANSI is a U.S. representative in international standard organizations including the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) to ensure that U.S. views are considered in international standard matters.
3. Innovative and Safe
ANSI allows industries to upgrade by ensuring that, while innovative, new products remain safe, of the best quality, and in accordance with consumer expectations.
4. Provide Certification
ANSI provides accreditation to testing laboratories and certification bodies to ensure that they are eligible to perform tests on products and provide endorsement marks like “ANSI Certified.”
5. Offer Training and Education
It offers courses and programs that businesses can take to understand how standards work and why they are so crucial.
ANSI Standards in Action in Real Life
ANSI-approved standards are all around you — in construction (building codes for safe homes and offices), in healthcare (medical device rules, hospital safety, and clean-room procedures), in technology (like software coding rules or cybersecurity standards), plus manufacturing (machine safety, or protective equipment guidelines), in energy (designs for wind turbines or standards for fuels), and in consumer goods for things like toy safety, bike helmets, and ladders.
For instance, when you put on safety glasses at a place of work, they probably are compliant with the ANSI standards for vision protection. Or when working on a computer, it is the layout of a standard keyboard based on some common standard for efficient typing.
What’s the Big Deal About ANSI Anyway?
ANSI makes things easier and safer. Here’s how:
- It’s good for the consumer: You can be pretty sure that products which bear the certification are safe to use.
- It’s good for business: Less mistakes, saving money, fair trade
- Competition in the market should provide an incentive to maintain the most stringent level of quality which is more beneficial than restrictive competition. Similar to this stringent level of quality, all businesses must meet the same quality level. Economies of scale can make products cheaper as well, once again help by the standards that will allow companies to sell their products worldwide.
- Innovation: Clear rules help inventors create new products more quickly.
Without ANSI and what it does, we’d have chaos, dangerous products, and lots of headaches.
Conclusion
ANSI may operate in the shadows, but its effect rings out all over the place. Your phone charger, your food labels, safety glasses, and software systems all are under the umbrella—Ansi groups of every corner of human life.
It makes products and services safe, of high quality and easy to use. That's how the ANSI contributes towards building a better and safer world for every individual.
That’s it – the next time you spot ‘ANSI Certified’ on a product, you’ll know it’s met some of the best safety and quality standards out there.