“What is the difference between a current and an inactive standard?” That was a question posed to me yesterday by one of our Document Center Inc. customers. Of course, we’ve been working with specifications and standards for many years which means that this is an “old” topic for us. But not everyone is as familiar with the various conventions of standardization as we are. So I was happy to be able to help our customer understand the difference and make an educated decision on what standard to use in his situation.
What is a current standard? This is a document that is valid at this time. In other words, it can legally be called out on a drawing or in a contract and will be considered “best practices” according to industry experts. Normally, current standards are reviewed by their authoring committee on a five year cycle. This means that there is a process to confirm that the underlying technical aspects of the document remain valid over time.
What is an inactive standard (that is, inactive for new design)? This document is out-of-date for some reason and yet still needs to be used “for replacement purposes only.” So the document remains valid and yet is not recommended for new design. You can use it to manufacture replacement parts for existing product lines only. An example of when inactive standards are useful? Of course, the space shuttle is the one that always comes to my mind. During it’s lengthy life space, the technologies used in the space shuttle (think particularly of the computer systems onboard) were definitely out-of-date. And yet, modification of the crafts was not possible. To keep them in working order, they were maintained throughout their life span using documentation that was obsolete for other applications.
One important aspect of the development of the “inactive” or “non-current” status is the requirement in many industry sectors to only use valid documentation for procurement. This requirement has caused many headaches during Mil Spec reform in the 1990’s for example. The DoD (U.S. Defense Dept.) withdrew many standards publications during this time not realizing the broad impact that this would have on the aerospace industry. Now as technologies move forward, standards developers work more closely with both the government and industry sectors to “sunset” documents needed to keep existing product lines operational.
So, now we get down to our original question — What is the difference between a current and an inactive standard? A current standard is valid for both new design and replacement purposes. An inactive standard is valid for replacement purposes only.
Most of the time, the source organization of the inactive standard will provide a path for an appropriate replacement document. This makes the task of figuring out what to do when a standard you use is inactivated much easier. However, there are a number of documents that get inactivated without a clear superseding document for new design. When that happens, you’ll search the Document Center Inc. database to see if you can spot another publication that will directly support your future product lines.
As for our customer? He confirmed that his inactive specification was still valid for the application he was considering. So he was able to go ahead and use it with confidence. And as for a replacement? There was a replacement and the replacement had also gotten replaced! So if in the future our customer has a new design application for this, there is a document for that too.
Still having issues with what to use to replace an inactive spec or standard? Contact the Document Center Inc. staff by phone (650-591-7600), fax (650-591-7617) or email (info@document-center.com). We can help you understand the situation. And we may be able to find the committee chair in charge of the inactive document or another expert to get suggestions for you as well. Remember, we’re your Standards Experts!
