SNV Story No. 6: Standards compendium 2022

Clearly structured
The standards compendium does not appear every four years just by chance. This rhythm is coordinated with the duration of an apprenticeship in the MEM sector. The first edition of 1941 was quickly known as the VSM Booklet and contained 55 pages. The 17th edition will make it to a whopping 590 pages. The individual chapters have grown steadily over the years, and so it was inevitable that there would be overlap in the content. In the current edition, the group of authors has now sorted out, combined like-with-like and generously configured the chapter structure. The almost 4,000 learners in this training year can look forward to a version with a “fil rouge” that is intuitive to grasp and easy to read.

Updated contents
An essential part of the pages-long work is still the ISO GPS standards system, which is explained in great depth. Compared to the 2018 edition, the topics of adhesive bonding, surface protection and wear protection are covered more comprehensively. Some chapters have been completely added while others have disappeared. It is important to the group of authors that the content reflects practical experience. Today, not a single learner makes drawings by hand and therefore the corresponding content has fallen away. Even if such steps are sometimes emotional, they are necessary for the sake of timeliness. All in all, learners will find around 500 international standards summarised and edited compactly between two book covers. If all the standards texts dealt with were printed out in the original and stacked, this tower would be several metres high.

Lexicon of the industry
The standards compendium is not an actual teaching aid, it is a supplementary reference work for all learners and a bridge builder between theory and practice. In it, apprentices will find all the tables, standards and regulations they need for their professions, for example as polymechanics, draughtsmen, automation engineers or apparatus engineers. It is a constant companion at the vocational school, at the workplace and must also be present at the final examination. The standards compendium is also available digitally and enriched with multimedia content and practical functions. Experience shows that learners keep their standards compendium over many years of work, and so the year of training can be easily determined on the basis of the book lying on the bookshelf.

No success without a standard
MEM apprentices quickly learn during their training how important standards are in their industry. Design and compliance with standards determine competitive advantages and market success. They also acquire knowledge about the hierarchies in the standardisation system. Thus, ISO is the highest international form of standards. If Europe ratifies an ISO standard and adopts it 1:1 in an EN standard, all European countries, including Switzerland, undertake to apply it equally at the national level. Consequently, the SN EN ISO standards then emerge for Switzerland. The standards compendium focuses on international standards and helps learners to understand the interplay as well as the demarcation at all levels.

Internationally in demand
The Swiss Standards Compendium is unique in its design worldwide. In Germany or South Africa, for example, there are purely table books, or in America and Canada there is only a traditional engineering manual. Such an advanced, extensive and yet compact book is unique. It is therefore not surprising that Swissmem and the SNV receive licence requests from governments or universities from all over the world. As the standards compendium is not only available in German, but also in French, Italian and English, foreign companies are also regular customers. It can be proudly reported that the standards compendium has a worldwide star cult.

Voluntary working hours
The group of authors behind this masterpiece is a motley crew. Designers, professors, materials specialists or cantonal chief experts and many more work together towards one goal: to provide learners with the best reference book. This is out of passion for the profession and a sincere interest in promoting young talent. Sometimes this leads to heated discussions during working sessions. Especially when standards have not yet been finalised. The nice thing, however, is that it is always all about the cause and the joint lunch afterwards has never been at stake. If specialised knowledge needed within the group is lacking, researchers and experts are sought out in the companies and asked for input, corrections or feedback. This great commitment is mostly done in their free time and unpaid. And working according to the standards compendium always comes with writing the standards compendium. While the learners are coming to grips with the current edition and finding their way into the professional world, the group is already working on the next edition in 2026. Among other things, future manufacturing processes or model-based definition will be dealt with in depth there.

Walter Zlauwinen opened the doors to the working group and answered our questions about the standards compendium. He works as a design engineer and has been a member of the working group since 2006. At the time, he reported a spelling mistake in the standards compendium and because of this slipped directly into the work. The fascination for the subject has not left him until today.