“This approach offers a level field of competition across the world, so that companies can compete based on the value they can offer customers no matter where in the world those customers may live and do business,” he tells ISO Focus.
Owens goes on to affirm his appreciation of how ISO standards help reduce non-tariff barriers to trade, whilst making industry more efficient. “It is not economical to develop products to meet different requirements in each country,” he says. “Thus, the ISO standards are very valuable for promoting global requirements to minimize the time and costs of developing and testing new products.”
International Standards also bring a great many benefits to new technology, Owens emphasizes: “Standards help establish acceptance criteria and test methods for the introduction of new technology. Particularly in the safety area, International Standards provide performance criteria that can be used as a baseline for adopting new innovations and technology.”
As the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines, with 300 facilities in more than 40 countries, Caterpillar is committed to developing and promoting ISO standards. “Caterpillar is actively leading the development of ISO standards for our products,” says Owens in the interview. “We are also promoting the adoption of the ISO standards as the national standards for our products, as well as the use of the ISO standards as the basis for the technical content in national and regional regulations.”
The benefits of harmonized International Standards are manifold for a multinational company like Caterpillar with R&D, manufacturing and assembly sites all over the world. Says Owen: “Harmonized standards minimize the number of product configurations that must be designed…[and] reduce product development costs, if the same basic machine configuration can be sold around the world.”
“With harmonized standards, machines can be shipped from production facilities in different parts of the world to balance production versus demand.”
ISO's development of an International Standard giving guidelines on social responsibility (ISO 26000) is supported by Caterpillar, who partakes in the multi-stakeholder group drafting the content of the standard. “ISO guidelines on social responsibility would go beyond the product to help harmonize stakeholder expectations of companies who operate globally,” says the company's CEO. “Therefore, we are pleased to have a representative who is participating in the development of ISO 26000.”
