For some time now, a London evening newspaper has been running a successful advertising campaign based on the slogan “Everyone needs Standards” .
Well, everyone does.
We need standards of behaviour, standards of decency, and standards of safety. We need standards of health care, standards in education, and standards in research. And we need standards in every part of our economic and industrial life. [end p1]
There could be no better demonstration of our need for engineering and technological standards than the splendid new facilities we see here today.
What is the origin of this need? Why are there over 3000 BSI committees dedicated to the creation of new standards and the revision of old ones?
I sometimes wonder—especially about the committees.
The truth is that standards are essential to our prosperity as a trading nation. [end p2] We need standards to keep our industries competitive and to help us create jobs. We need them, in short, to maintain our standard of living.
That's why this Government is fully committed to the use of standards, and to the work of the BSI. That is why we welcome the investment in the future of British Standards which these new facilities represent.
There was a time when British Standards were accepted unquestioningly in many countries throughout the world. [end p3]
One has only to think of the Plimsoll line, or Greenwich Mean Time, or the Indian railways.
The first British Standard—BS 1—applied to rolled steel sections; and all the material used in the construction of railway rolling stock for India conformed to it.
Those were the days!
There are modern examples too —BS 5500, for unfired pressure vessels is an essential specification in many parts of the world. [end p4] It is used extensively in the North Sea. —BS 9000, governing the specification and quality assessment of electronic components, is the basis for European and worldwide standards. —Best of all, BS 6008 provides a universal criterion for “the preparation of a liquor of tea, with or without milk” .
These standards reflect the hard work which is necessary to stay ahead of the game. And they show the key role which BSI can [end p5] play in developing standards which are up to date and which serve the national interest. Standards which reflect customers needs, and which reduce rather than reinforce barriers to trade.
Never assume that customers care only about price. Of course price is important. But price is a relative concept. It is not absolute. [end p6]
What really matters is price in relation to design, and price in relation to quality. Sometimes a cheap product which doesn't last costs more in the long run than a dearer product which does.
The Department of Trade and Industry is sponsoring a National Quality Campaign, with vigorous support from the BSI. The object of the campaign is to persuade top managers in this country of the competitive advantages their companies can derive from effective quality management systems. I am sure that BSI's Quality Assurance Services, which are now based here at Milton [end p7] Keynes, will continue to play a vital role in this Campaign.
But quality is not something that can be built into a product just by top management. Quality depends on the effective use of technology, and on the personal efforts of every company employee.
I believe this message is getting through, both in manufacturing and in the service industries. Customers' expectations are increasingly placed where they belong—at the top of every firm's list of priorities. Hardly a new thought, you may say. [end p8] But for some of those who work in industry little short of revolutionary.
Alongside this revolution in attitudes, and stemming from it, there are encouraging signs of a revolution in performance. Between the end of 1983 and the end of 1984 non-oil exports rose by nearly 11%;. Manufacturing productivity has risen by 20%; over the past four years—more than twice the increase in France and Germany. And capital investment in 1984 reached an all time high. [end p9]
These are achievements of which we can all be proud. There is much more to do. But we do not lack either the will or the ingenuity to do it.
In the years that lie ahead, the role of the British Standards institution in improving our industrial competitiveness—in raising our standards—will be crucial. You have our full and warm support.
It gives me great pleasure to declare these magnificent new buildings open.