Manufacturing paradigms: the role of standards in the past, the present and the future paradigm of sustainable manufacturing

Abstract

This article suggests that standards are the key enablers of past, present and future manufacturing paradigm shifts. A brief historical review describes the development of manufacturing and the pivotal role standards played. Manufacture was craft-based until national standards had been developed and enabled mass production. Standards played a similar role in the shift to lean manufacture. Lately, there has been a growing environmental/sustainability emphasis. Hence, new manufacturing technologies have been, and indeed are being, developed for end-of-life-processing. We are approaching, if not in, a new ‘un-manufacturing’ paradigm, driven by sustainability. Standards are enabling this shift. Typically, there are environmental management standards, e.g. the ISO 14000, and eco-design initiatives, e.g. the energy-using products (EuP) directive. Specific to product design is the suite of BS 8887 standards with the acronym ‘MADE’ (manufacture, assembly, disassembly and end-of-life processing).