Overview of the U.S. Standardization System Booklet

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is pleased to release the third edition of its Overview of the U.S. Standardization System. This booklet provides a high-level overview of our nation’s voluntary consensus standards and conformity assessment activities and is freely available to the public as an educational resource.

Overview of the U.S. Standardization System, updated as the third edition in 2010, is one of several informational brochures published by ANSI. It is a sister document to the United States Standards Strategy and the National Conformity Assessment Principles for the United States.

The booklet explains the decentralized, demand-driven, and voluntary nature of the U.S. standards and conformance system. The history of standards and conformity assessment, as well as the strong impact that they have on the innovation of products, services, and systems in the U.S., are highlighted.