World Standards Day: An Opportunity to Spread a Culture of Quality from Industry to Daily Life

By shaping how we think, make decisions and pursue continuous improvement, standards can play a key role in achieving sustainable development and building a better world.

Guest note - Meisham Tawakli, a member of the National Standards Scientific Association: On the occasion of World Standards Day and emphasizing the importance of promoting standard culture in different dimensions of life, he stated: The standard should not be known only in the framework of industrial requirements, technical standards and management systems, but with a broader view, its principles and concepts can also be expanded to the field of individual and social life.

Quality of life is a multidimensional concept and cannot be evaluated simply by a criterion or through satisfaction in a specific area. Physical and mental health, family and social relationships, financial status, personal growth and development, learning and skill acquisition, quality of work life, balance between work and personal life, leisure time, quality of living environment and sense of meaning are among the domains that together form the level of well-being of people.

In quality management systems, in order to improve their performance, organizations first identify and design their processes, then by defining appropriate indicators, they evaluate the effectiveness and compliance of the performance of these processes with the set goals. The results of this evaluation are the basis for identifying weaknesses, defining corrective measures, and establishing effective methods in order to provide a basis for continuous improvement while maintaining achievements. With the inspiration of this logic, different realms of well-being can be identified in an individual's life and indicators can be considered to evaluate the existing situation for each of them, according to the individual's conditions and priorities. In this way, it is determined which areas need more attention and corrective action and in which areas the existing quality should be kept stable by maintaining and strengthening effective behaviors and methods. In fact, just as in organizations, the systematic evaluation and improvement of processes leads to the improvement of performance, in individual life, the conscious evaluation of different areas and the definition of measures according to its results can pave the way for continuous improvement of the quality of life.

One of the most important realms of human well-being is social responsibility, which includes components such as helping others, participating in voluntary activities, observing citizen's rights, and paying attention to environmental protection. To evaluate the individual's status in this realm, each of these examples can be considered as an indicator and given a score from 1 to 10 based on the individual's participation and performance. So that a higher score indicates more participation and activity and a lower score indicates the need for more attention and improvement in that field. By recording and reviewing these points, you can get a clearer picture of the current situation and identify areas that need improvement. The same approach can be used in other areas of well-being, including physical and mental health, family and social relationships, personal growth and development, etc.

After evaluating each of the territories, the results can be compared with the goals and desired situation and based on the existing distance, the necessary measures for improvement can be planned. In the areas that have a lower score, areas of weakness should be identified and appropriate corrective measures should be defined; On the other hand, in areas that have a more favorable situation, standardization of effective factors can help to maintain the gains. Re-evaluation in specific time intervals also provides the possibility of checking the effectiveness of actions and correcting the path. By using the principles of quality management, including the definition of indicators, performance monitoring, corrective action and continuous improvement, this approach can help people to systematically check the status of different areas of their lives and take steps to improve the quality of life in a balanced way.

"The concept of quality should not remain behind the doors of factories; Rather, it should make its way from industry to everyday life."

The motto "Shared vision for a better world" emphasizes the importance of paying attention to quality in different dimensions of life; Because every person can play a role in improving family relationships and strengthening social responsibility by consciously evaluating their situation in different realms of well-being and trying to continuously improve them, in addition to improving the quality of personal life. From this point of view, the principles of quality management and standard culture, with an emphasis on evaluation, correction and continuous improvement, can go beyond industrial environments and reach daily choices and behaviors; A path that makes the realization of a common vision for a better world more possible with the participation and responsibility of people.