Among ANSI’s key priorities is increasing outreach to diverse areas of industry to communicate the value and impact of standards and drive active participation. While some sectors such as manufacturing, food production, and construction have relied upon standards and conformity assessment and been heavily engaged in standardization activities for decades, other emerging areas may not be as active.
In either case, there are often great opportunities to drive safety, efficiency, competitiveness, and innovation through greater reliance on and participation in standards. ANSI actively reaches out to assess the landscape across diverse industry sectors through engagement activities including the following:
A venue for ANSI members representing the broad spectrum of U.S. industry to come together to discuss national, regional, and global standards and conformity assessment issues and collectively shape and influence U.S. policy in the domestic and international arena.
An issue-driven forum established to enable U.S. manufacturers and other stakeholders to have a strong, collaborative voice when addressing domestic, regional, foreign, and global chemical regulations.
ANSI’s annual event for members and stakeholders across all sectors for discussion of hot topics, networking and information exchange, and celebration of the standardization community’s impact and achievements.
ANSI works with members and partners to identify the needs of the services sector, the ways in which all sectors are becoming increasingly service-oriented, and the role that standards and conformity assessment can play.
As the demand for new products and services and the adoption of innovative solutions continue globally at break-neck speeds, there are big opportunities for U.S. businesses in emerging markets. ANSI works with its members and stakeholders to anticipate and address key standards development needs for the United States. By assessing research and trends and linking emerging technologies with identified priorities, ANSI identifies potential areas for standards coordination and proposes appropriate activities that meet the broadest needs.
When an area of activity is clearly identified, ANSI may initiate a standards coordination activity – often starting with a targeted workshop or stakeholder event, and possibly resulting in the establishment of an ongoing standards collaborative. These activities are designed to advance cross-sector coordination in the development and compatibility of the standards and conformance programs needed to support and grow emerging technologies and markets.
ANSI’s standards coordination work is responsive to industry’s evolving needs, as innovation and technologies advance all the time. A few additional focus areas currently on ANSI’s radar for outreach, needs assessment, and potential coordination activities include:
The agricultural machinery industry is poised to benefit from progress made on autonomous vehicles in the automotive and aerospace sectors (see ANSI's work in unmmaned aircraft systems). Globally relevant standards can leverage this innovation to help bring autonomous solutions to the ag market faster, more safely, and more cost effectively.
Particularly in emerging markets like these, standards have to power to drive progress, safety, and efficiency by:
