The Society for Standards
Professionals
How Standards in Plant Operations Will
Drive Value Creation and
Competitiveness Among Global
Manufacturers
Rich Robben
Executive Director, Plant
Operations
University Of Michigan
©2014
SES - The Society for Standards Professionals
Education Enterprise
• Universities need standards to operate
properly.
• Standards for buildings,technology,
teaching, and health & safety.
• Most industries rely on sector-specific
standards, education requires a whole
string of standards – spanning business,
government and society.
Education Enterprise
• McKinsey & Company, a management
consulting firm, helps leading
organizations across the globe improve
performance.
• Predicts just keeping pace with the
projected global GDP growth will require
an estimated USD 57 trillion in
infrastructure investment between now
and 2030.
Education Enterprise
• This figure could be reduced by 10% to
20% if businesses and entire industries
were more engaged in standards
development.
• Campuses are a natural
place to start because
their “city within a city”
characteristic makes them
ideal study units for cities
of the future.
An Unsung Industry
• Stewards of one of the largest assets
owned by any community – its schools,
colleges, universities and hospitals.
• European campuses’ square footage is
integrated into the city.
An Unsung Industry
US campuses – particularly land-grant
institutions – have real footprints of
many square kilometres with their own
energy production, telecommunications,
water management and road systems.
An Unsung Industry
• Legally separate from the host
community - risk aggregations and
economic expectations are as complex
as a mega-cap global corporation.
• Given this footprint it is not only logical
but imperative that higher education
engage in standard development
advocacy.
Big and Small Fish
• Stewards tasked with leaving our
campuses in better shape than we
found them.
• Expected to “act like a business”.
• In the education world we lack one
important resource: leverage.
Big and Small Fish
• General Electric - 1 of 300 members
funding the USD 25 million NEMA.
• Develops technical standards supporting
USD 120 billion electrical industry.
• Cost in every light bulb, motor and smartgrid gizmo bought.
• An industry ½ our size spends USD 25
million a year on global standardization
and innovation processes.
University of Michigan Plant Operations
Plant Operation’s Mission
Plant Operations, a member of the
campus community, provides and
sustains the physical environment for the
University of Michigan to achieve its
goals of excellence in education,
research and public service.
University of Michigan Plant
Operations
Our Code Advocacy Goals
• Serve the public user interest
• Positively impact competitiveness
among global manufacturers
• Drive value creation for the End User
• Safer, Cheaper, More Reliable, Longer
Lasting
University of Michigan Plant Operations
Why is U of M Here?
Current State
• Very little end user participation in the
standards development process
• Process governed by
Manufacturers/vendors and special
interest groups
• The ANSI concept of a balanced of
interests in standards development is
being challenged
National Infrastructure Standards
Strategy
•Since 1997, Plant Operations at the
University of Michigan has been a
leader in national infrastructure
standards strategy for the $300 billion
educational facilities industry.
•Advocate for the public user interest in
regional, national and global standards
development.
©2014
SES - The Society for Standards Professionals
Advocate for the Public User Interest
Our Actions
• Advocate for Increase End User
Participation in the US National Standards
arena
• Greater representation on technical
committees of ANSI approved Standards
Development Organizations - SDOs
• Review and comment on the continuous
flow of new proposals appearing before
SDOs
National Infrastructure Standards
Strategy
Our Actions
• Developing new proposals to SDOs for
inclusion into standards
• Strongly Support Development of new SDOs
that will influence the Facilities Management
Arena in the concept of Total Cost of
Ownership - TCO
• Influence the code development process at
the state, national and international levels.
©2014
SES - The Society for Standards Professionals
National Infrastructure Standards
Strategy
Our Actions
• Educate the education and other
sectors of new new standards
language.
• Collaborate with trade organizations to
multiply our efforts.
• Place University representation on
Code Advisory committees within the
state of Michigan.
©2014
SES - The Society for Standards Professionals
National Infrastructure Standards
Strategy
Our Focus
• Total Cost of Ownership
Safer, Simpler, Lower Cost, Longer Lasting
• Leading Practice Discovery
• Competitiveness of Suppliers
National Infrastructure Standards
Strategy
Our Successes
•Participate on numerous standards
development committees and currently
maintain oversight of over 180
standards issues.
•Our advocacy efforts create an
opportunity for conversation, debate and
occasionally disagreement.
Advocacy for the Public User
Interest
Noteworthy Advocacy
Achievements
• Success in changing the
2014 National Electrical
Code so that less electrical
energy is brought into every
building.
• Drives down the first cost of
constructing the entire
electrical power chain and
reduces operational hazards
significantly.
Noteworthy Advocacy Achievements
• Success in catalyzing the creation of an
American national standard for the
custodial industry.
• Significant reduction to the total cost of
ownership when benchmarks have a
national standard in support of public
health and workplace safety.
ANSI - Balance & Incumbent
Interests
Incumbent Interests
Incumbent producers and general
interests – hold a strong market position
– relative to the comparative sparseness
of the user interest, especially from the
public sector.
Producer & User/Enforcer
Manufacturers, insurance and labour
organizations - weave the cost of their
engagement in standards development
activities into the product and/or
service they provide to their
“customer”.
Public Sector User Interest
At the opposite end of the spectrum, the
public sector user interest – cities,
counties, states, and large universities
such as our own – face a much greater
challenge.
User/Owner/Final Fiduciary
• Public safety
• Economic development
• Opportunity
• Lower cost and higher value
• User/owners
• Final fiduciary for safety and solvency
• Paying the cost for the consequences of
standards or lack of standards
Two Tier System
• Standardization processes are the most
efficient way to reconcile the competing
requirements of safety versus economy.
• User/owner is not at these consensus
meetings because they cannot afford to
be at the scale of the incumbents.
Two Tier System
• UM study of global standards
development bodies revealed almost all
were short on user/owner participation.
• NSF International, Underwriters
Laboratories and the National Fire
Protection Association – pay travel costs
of users, but only for user/enforcers, i.e.
the conformity assessment professionals
who will be using their documents.
Two Tier System
• Scarcity of the user/owner
• Who’s fault?
• ANSI President and CEO S. Joe Bhatia UM
presentation October 2014,
“ If you talk to the CEOs and C-suite
executives, they do not have any focus
on this subject. Unless and until there is a
major economic ramification: either a big
order was lost or there was a lawsuit.”
Our Challenge
• No single organization represents the
education facilities industry.
• Many non-profit trade associations that
service the US education industry are
“membership organizations ”.
• Business model - conflict of interest - at
odds with producers and general
interests.
•
US tax code for 501(c)(3) non-profit
organizations.
Responding to the Challenge
• Become accredited standards developers
- use social media tools available to
drive value into the industry.
• University of Michigan Model
@StandardsUMich
http://standards.plantops.umich.edu/
How Trade Associations Can Help
UM is now the only university
in our industry with a
member appointed to the
National Fire Protection
Association Research
Foundation—one of the
highest positions of influence
in our industry.
How Trade Associations Can Help
• A workgroup is now in action to discover
the degree University of Michigan may
strengthen its leadership in infrastructure
standards
• Engage proactively with all ANSI
members that are stakeholders in our
industry.
Market In Balance
• Material versus labour
• First cost versus life-cycle operation &
maintenance
• Safety versus economy
• Increase participants and leading
practice discovery
• Engage the education industry farther up
the value chain
Market In Balance
Give national standards accreditation
organizations their own ISO standard,
which should enable them to identify the
complexity of the infrastructure market
and provide a framework for resolution of
the market imbalance we now face.
Market In Balance
• Assertive engagement in global
standards development.
• Link the ideals of the academy with
practical business sense.
• To what degree can public sector
infrastructure benefit from the
engagement in standards development?
• To what degree do we fail in our mission
if we do not try?