Custom versus mandatory standard
Definition
Voluntary industry standards represent custom in the industry; regulatory standards (mandatory by law) set the legal floor. A product can violate custom without violating regulation, or meet both and still be found defective under Risk-Utility analysis.
Related terms
- Commercial feasibility
- Whether the cost of the safer design, spread across expected production volumes, would have made the product unaffordable or unmarketable.
- Design standard
- A document produced by a recognised body (ISO, ASTM, UL, EN, national authority) specifying minimum technical requirements for a product category. Meeting...
- Risk-Utility calculus
- The balancing of expected harm (probability of injury multiplied by severity) against the burden of prevention (cost of the SAD plus any...
- Safer alternative design (SAD)
- A specific, concrete modification to a product that would have reduced the hazard in question while preserving the product's essential utility, and...
- Technical feasibility
- The capacity to implement a design change with materials, processes, and knowledge available at the date the product was manufactured and sold.
Explained in
- Design Defect Analysis and Safer Alternative DesignsVoluntary industry standards represent custom in the industry; regulatory standards (mandatory by law) set the legal floor. A product can violate custom withou...