Global Relevance of IEC standards

The Council Board (CB) and Standardization Management Board (SMB) completed implementation procedures for the CB recommendations, approved in 2001, to ensure that IEC standards are truly global in their relevance. The procedure sets out how “essential differences” in requirements shall or shall not be included in the normative or informative parts of IEC standards. These essential differences in requirements will be based on either differences in technical infrastructure or on differences in climatic conditions

IEC-IEEE

During the General Meeting held in Beijing, China, the IEC and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) signed an agreement to optimize the development of electrotechnical standards by bringing IEEE standards that complement the IEC’s technical programme into the Commission’s standardization process for publication as International Standards. Under the agreement, those IEEE Standards accepted and approved by the IEC will be published as International Standards bearing the logos of both organizations.

TISS

The Technical Information Support and Services developed a Welcome Kit principally for TC and SC secretaries although any IEC expert with an interest may have one. TISS also created IT News, an online service providing news about information technology developments within Central Office that will be of interest to the IEC community.

Meetings

While the number of technical committee and subcommittee meetings held in 2002 (109) remained about steady when compared to 2001 (104), the difference lies in the distribution. The number of TC/SC meetings held in conjunction with the General Meeting in Beijing, China, rose while the number of TC/SC meetings held throughout the rest of the year fell, giving an overall balance to the two.

Production of IEC publications continues to rise, making a significant move upwards from 465 in 2001 to 544 in 2002. Some of this can be attributed to greater efficiency in the standards development process thanks to IT tools, and to reorganization in the technical department at Central Office. But more of it can be attributed to an overall sense of the need to respond to the market that derives from the Masterplan’s initiatives coming into play in more concrete ways.

The ISO/IEC Directives covering procedures for technical work require that a Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) should take no more than four months to prepare prior to being sent out for final vote by national committees. From one quarter to the next over the five years from 1997 to 2002, the average IEC FDIS remained well within this deadline.

The ISO/IEC Directives set a two-month limit for publishing an FDIS once the final go-ahead has been given by national committees. In the five years from 1997 to 2002 the IEC managed to improve procedures to the point where, on average, an IEC International Standard moves through the final production in about half the allotted time.

Despite variations by sector, in total terms in 2002 the IEC remained fairly balanced in maintaining existing publications as compared to developing new ones (see “Developing new vs. maintaining existing publications” graph). But it is also clear that, in absolute terms, more overall maintenance occurred in 2002 than in 2001 (see “Maintenance” graph).