Research

Standards Support Business Competitiveness in Colombia (2018)

A study titled “Standardisation: a contribution to the competitiveness of Colombian organisations, case studies to measure the economic impact of technical standards.” was published in 2018, to increase the awareness of the multiple benefits that the technical standards bring to Colombian organisations.

This publication describes not only the evolution of standardization in Colombia, but also presents three case studies that have allowed us to quantify, in organizations of different sizes and sectors, the direct economic benefits of the implementation of the standards. This study gives continuity to a similar study carried out in 2011.

The economic contribution of the standards in organizations such as Gerfor (tube systems, large size organization), Doria (food, large size organization) and Vilaseca (food, medium size organization) range between 0,9% to 88% to the EBIT of the organization, as well as to the benefits that impact on the processes that cover organization improvements in the productive processes, saving of resources, among other aspects.

The publishing organisation (ICONTEC – a Colombian Certification and standardisation body), highlights that the economic benefits derived from the application of the standards were observed in two fundamental aspects:

• Derived from the improvements that impact the productive processes, which enables the optimisation and saving and access to resources,
• Maintenance in markets, aware of the importance of quality, safety and sustainability.

Finally, it stated that maintaining competitiveness is one of the greatest challenges for Colombia. Therefore, the development and promotion of the application of Technical Standards is considered to represent a concrete action for the fulfilment of this objective.

This study is available in Spanish here