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Standards

‘The World Needs Standards,’ Says Fiat-Chrysler CEO

Automotive executives reveal their companies’ perspectives on standards implementation

Published: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - 13:29

(ISO: Geneva) -- The February 2012 issue of ISO Focus+, the magazine of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), will be showing up on people’s desks soon. In particular, it will make an appearance at the Fully Networked Car workshop, which is held annually at the Geneva International Motor Show in Switzerland, in March. This year will be the seventh workshop, which focuses on the car of the future and the intelligent transport system (ITS) needed to support it.

In an ISO Focus+ exclusive, high-level executives from the world’s leading carmakers such as Audi, Bentley Motors, and Kia Motors reveal their companies’ perspectives on the benefits of standards implementation and share their expectations for today and tomorrow. Here’s a sampling:

Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat and Chrysler Group: “We do need standards; the world needs standards. Standards help an enterprise manage business-critical issues, such as quality, environmental performance, and safety.”

Martin Conrads, head of Information of Services and Standards at Audi: “For Audi, international standards open the worldwide supplier market. Standardized components give our customers remarkable added value, for example, with the ISOFIX child-seat interface.”

Michael Straughan, board member of manufacturing at Bentley Motors: “We were one of the first UK plants to achieve ISO 14001 certification for environmental management, the first in our sector to set out a clear strategy for reducing our impact on the environment, and we are now the first UK automotive plant to certify to the new ISO 50001 energy management standard.”

Hyoung-Keun Lee, vice chairman and CEO at Kia Motors: “If the global automotive industry combined efforts to invigorate current ISO activities, car manufacturers, motorists, and our planet would benefit. Greater cooperation would also lead to an even broader range of car-related technology standards.”

Mikhail Gorbachev, Peace Prize Laureate: “Naturally, we are not trying to put everyone on trams or bicycles in the immediate future, but in my view, there is a clear movement in this direction, and the automotive industry must not fear this. The demand for their products will be maintained in a new framework and under different conditions, and we must prepare for the future, because whether we like it or not, it will come.”

Richard Parry Jones, former vice president of global product development, and chief technical officer at Ford Motor Co.: “To achieve all these benefits to society and customers in terms of emissions, congestion, and safety, we will require International Standards for communications, so that every car can talk to another reliably and securely.”

Under the general heading of “Future gear,” the issue of ISO Focus+ is dedicated to some of the key issues affecting the automotive sector and how international standards can help build the car of the future.

It brings together a portfolio of articles predominantly based on standards developed by ISO Technical Committee (TC) 22“Road vehicles,” and ISO/TC 204—“Intelligent transport systems.” Between the two committees, virtually most of the standards relative to cars are produced—with more than 1,000 to date.

The leaders of the two ISO committees, Michael Noblett and Michel Potvin, comment: “From our end, the issues facing the industry's future must be addressed on the basis of an integrated approach, involving not only automakers but also government and consumers. And we will continue to do our share by developing timely, best-practice guidelines—the industry's future and our planet's sustainability depend on it.”

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The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is the world’s largest developer and publisher of international standards. ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 162 countries, one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system. ISO is a nongovernmental organization that forms a bridge between the public and private sectors. ISO enables a consensus to be reached on solutions that meet both the requirements of business and the broader needs of society. View the ISO Standards list.