| Survey Reveals Inefficiencies In Standards Usage by Jaren Green, Editor
A IHS survey of more than 100 standards users provided the following results:
| Search Time - The average time for someone to personally search for and obtain a standards document in the course of a day was reported to take between 15 minutes and 1 hour for more than 50% of respondents. As many as 20% said it takes more than 1 hour. |
| Search Frequency - For those who responded, the average number of searches per month was 12. |
| Search Failure Rate - About one third said they are "almost always" successful at finding the documents they need. That leaves more than half who frequently cannot find important documents. When this happens, approximately 65% reported losing 1 hour or more of productivity due to frustration, finding alternatives, building workarounds, etc. |
| Access Methods - About 40% said they purchase standards individually. More than a quarter rely only on Internet searches for free standards. And, just under 20% get their standards from a corporate library. |
| Search Confidence Level - Maybe the most surprising find is that about 60% of the time, standards users are unsure if they are actually using the most current version of a standard. |
Where these statistics represent the larger engineering community, they indicate great inefficiencies in current practices. Searches take longer than necessary, the number of users who fail to obtain important documents is too high, and confidence levels are very low. It's only obvious that I would think IHS services could improve the situation, but all pitching aside, how do you feel about these statistics? Are they realistic? There is some concern that standards compliance has become so difficult that more than a few companies are finding it hardly worth the effort. Is it worth the effort for you? What Are Your Struggles in obtaining, using and maintaining standards documents. Tell us about your successes and your failures. Please include your name, state or country, and position. We will print a representative sample of comments, and, unless told to do otherwise, will identify the contributor. Jaren Green, Sr. Editor
jaren.green@ihs.com |