ORGANISATION BRIEF

INTRODUCTION

1. Since the dawn of history of mankind, Standardisation has existed in some form or the other. Imagine, how difficult it would be, to have international trade/travel without standards of unit or measurement such as length, mass and time etc. The necessity of Standardisation was felt during the 2nd world war when the Allies could not get the war equipment of inter changeable nature. All these resulted in formation of International Standards Organisation (ISO) which has defined “Standardisation” as “The process of formulating and applying rules for an orderly approach to a specific activity for the benefit and with the cooperation of all concerned and in particular for the promotion of optimum overall economy, taking due account of functional conditions and safety requirements”.

2. From both logistics and economic considerations, lesser the variety of items purchased, stocked, transported and used by the Services, the better the war preparedness and fighting fitness. Hence “Defence Standardisation” is defined as “A means to provide the use of minimum number of parts to serve the maximum number of purposes consistent with economical manufacture, minimum whole life cost and the quality/reliability necessary to ensure maximum fighting effectiveness”.

3. Standardisation Directive The benefits of Standardisation were realized in the Ministry of Defence as early as 1959 when Standardisation Committee was set up under SA to RM. Based on their recommendations, Directorate of Standardisation was set up in the year 1962. Experience gained over the subsequent years resulted in the issue of ‘Standardisation Directive’ by the Government in Oct 1977 which laid the foundation of Standardisation activities in Defence on a sound footing. Basic aims of Standardisation therefore are as follows.

Variety reduction of existing inventory.
Effective Means of Entry Control.
Laying down procedures, methodology and guidelines that result in saving of Time, Money and Resources.

DIRECTORATE OF STANDARDISATION

(a) To provide Secretarial support to Standardisation Committee, the Defence Equipment Codification Committee (DECC), the Committee of Chairmen Standardisation Sub Committees (CCSSC), Inter Service Equipment Policy Sub Committee (ISEPSC) and Standardisation Sub Committees (SSCs).

(b) To execute and follow up all decisions of Standardisation Committee, DECC and CCSSC.

(c) To create SSCs/Technical Panels/Working Groups/Specialist Working Groups for preparation of Standardisation documents

(d) To scrutinize all new introduction of Defence Stores in the Services preventing variety of items from entering the supply system and to have an effective check on proliferation of items.

(e)To provide technical advice on Standardisation matters to various important Committees of the Services.

(f)To co-ordinate and conduct standardisation program at the following levels:-

(i)National. To nominate Officers from Defence Organisations / Services, Technical Divisional Council and Sectional Committees and to adopt Indian Standards wherever possible.

(ii)Inter Service. To lay down policies, targets and execute orders on Standardisation activities.

(iii)Intra Service. To coordinate with Service Standardisation Cells and other connected Organisations to provide Intra-Service Standardisation.

(g) To promote adoption of “SI” units in Ministry of Defence.

(h) To codify complete Defence Inventory using Defence Codification System (DCS).

(j)To maintain a Data Base of codified Defence Inventory for the purpose of Rationalisation, Standardisation, Simplification and ‘Entry Control’.

(k) To publish Defence Services Catalogues listing all Defence items Group/Class wise for use by DRDO, Depots, Indenting Authorities and AsHSP.

(l) To maintain and run Technical Information Centre for all Standardisation activities.

(m) To print, stock and issue Standardisation Documents, Compendiums and Catalogues for the Ministry of Defence Units. Also monitor implementation of these documents.

(n)To have an active interface with BIS, Service Standardisation Cells. DRDO, DGQA, Ordnance Factory Board, Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and Private manufacturers of Defence Stores on all Standardisation and Codification matters.

(p) To coordinate training of Technical Officers and Staff in Standardisation matters and also to run courses for others on specialized subjects such as Standardisation and Codification.

APEX COMMITTEES TO STEER STANDARDISATION AND CODIFICATION ACTIVITIES

Standardisation Committee

(5)The Standardisation Committee is the foremost policy making body on all matters pertaining to Standardisation. Its composition is as follows:-

(a)Chairman. Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri.

(b)Members.

(i)Additional Secretary, Ministry of Defence.

(ii)Additional Secretary (Defence Production).

(iii)Integrated Financial Adviser (DP&S), Ministry of Defence.

(iv)Joint Secretary (Dealing with Standardisation Matters).

(v)Director General Quality Assurance.

(vi)Chief Controller of Research & Development (Dealing with Standardisation Matters).

(vii)Master General of the Ordnance, Army Headquarters.

(viii)Chief of Materials, Naval Headquarters.

(ix)Air Officer-in-Charge, Maintenance, Air Headquarters.

(x)Director, Directorate of Planning & Coordination, Deptt of Defence Production.

(xi)Director General of Aeronautical Quality Assurance.

(xii)Director General Ordnance Factories.

(d)Member Secretary Director, Directorate of Standardisation.

(6) The Defence Standardisation Committee may co-opt and invite representative from various organisations as on required basis. Its functions are as follows:-

(a) To lay down policy guide lines concerning Standardisation and other matters coming within the scope of Standardisation Directive, for the purpose of evaluation, selection and introduction of major new weapons/equipment by the Defence Services.

(b) To lay down the policy of Joint Service Standardisation.

(d)To liaise with other National Standardisation Organisations.

Committee of Chairmen Standardisation Sub Committees (CCSSC)

The CCSSC is headed by AS (DP) (Chairman). It has the following composition:-
1. Members. Chairmen of the following 13 Standardisation Sub-Committees: -
  1. Aero Stores Standardisation Sub Committee.
  2. Armament Standardisation Sub Committee.
    Electrical Standardisation Sub Committee.
  3. Electronic Standardisation Sub Committee.
    Engineering Equipment Standardisation Sub Committee.
  4. Guided Missiles Systems & Components Standardisation Sub Committee.
  5. Instrument Standardisation Sub Committee.
    Information Technology Standardisation Sub-Committee.
  6. Material Standardisation Sub Committee.
    Medical Stores Standardisation Sub Committee.
  7. Nuclear Biological and Chemical Standardisation Sub Committee.
    Stores Standardisation Sub Committee.
  8. Vehicles Standardisation Sub Committee.
2. Co-opted Members.Standardisation Cell (Air Force), Standardisation Cell (Army) and Standardisation Cell (Navy).
3. Member Secretary.Director, Directorate of Standardisation.
Functions of CCSSC are as follows:-
1. To progress the activities on preparation of Standardisation Documents.
2. To lay down the norms for preparation of Standardisation Documents.
3. To approve/review the Five Year Roll-on-Plan for preparation of Standardisation Documents.
4. To work in close liaison with Standardisation Committee.
5. To sort out any controversial issues while preparing Standardisation Documents, through discussions in meetings.
6. To lay norms for adoption of National Standards.
Standardisation Sub-Committees (SSCs) and their Functions. To assist the CCSSC in achievement of standardisation targets, the 13 SSCs with adequate representations from DGQA, DRDO, Services, Ordnance Factory Board and Specialised Officers prepare the JSSs, JSRLs, JSPRs and ANs. The functions of SSCs are as follows:-
1. Selection of Components, Assemblies, Sub-Assemblies and Equipment for Standardisation based on a priority weighed system drawn up in accordance with operational and logistic considerations.
2. Prepare and finalize, on inter-services basis Joint Services Preferred Ranges (JSPRs), Joint Services Rationalised List (JSRLs), Joint Services Specifications (JSSs), Joint Services Guides (JSGs), and Approval Notifications (ANs) for adoption of Indian Standards in respect of components, assemblies, Sub-assemblies, equipment and other Defence Stores leading to approval of the Ministry of Defence. It also carries out periodic review of these documents every five years to incorporate latest development in science and technology.
3. Carry out review of department/domestic specifications with the object of converting these specifications, when appropriated, to Defence specifications.
4. Standardise equipment and stores for the Defence requirements for the purpose of variety reduction and reduced cost of manufacture/ procurement.
5. Recommend the creation of Specialist Technical Panels and Working Groups to undertake the detailed task of preparation of JSPRs, JSRLs, JSSs and JSGs of items/stores selected by the Sub-Committee for Standardisation. It also reviews their requirements and winds up existing panels/groups as and when requirement is over.
6. To continuously evaluate commercial products of inter service usage through the assistance of concerned Quality Assurance and Testing agencies such that a list of two to three nominated manufacturers for each one of these products is always available to guide/help procurement agencies.
7. To formulate and recommend a system of assessing cost/benefits of Standardisation effort, in their respective discipline.
8. To interact with Bureau of Indian Standard and other National Standard bodies for Harmonisation of Defence Standards wit National Standards.
Technical Panels. To assist the Sub-Committees, Technical Panels are created. Authority to form the Technical panels rests with the Chairman of the Standardisation Sub Committee.
Working Groups. The Chairman of Standardisation Sub Committees and Technical Panels may constitute Working Groups within the Sub-Committee/Technical Panels for progressing specific standardisation tasks which need expert and detailed study. Such Working Groups will be dissolved on completion of the assigned task.
Specialist Technical Panels.To help the designers of equipment, an Equipment Technical Panel has been created known as ‘Specialised Technical Panel for Human Factor for Designers of Equipment’.

Defence Equipment Codification Committee (DECC)

This Committee is chaired by the Joint Secretary (Dealing with Standardisation Matters, Ministry of Defence). Members are representative from DGAFMS, DGAQA,DRDO, Directorate General Quality Assurance, Army Headquarters, Naval Headquarters, Air Headquarters, Ordnance Factory Board and the Member Secretary is the Director of Standardisation. Its functions are as follows:-
1. To formulate and review Defence Services Cataloguing System taking into consideration the International activities in the field.
2. To make recommendations for the implementation of Cataloguing policy.
3. To keep close liaison with the Standardisation Committee.
4. To guide and progress activities of the Defence Cataloguing Authority.
5. To formulate rules and procedures for Joint Services Cataloguing.

Functions Related to Entry Control and Variety Reduction

Two important activities of the Directorate of Standardisation as mentioned in policy Directive are Entry Control and Variety Reduction. To achieve “Entry Control” the Directorate prepares Joint Services Catalogues based on NATO Codification system. Catalogues are being published group-class wise and circulated to all concerned AsHSP and the Standardisation Sub Committees. When a new Store/Item is introduced into the Services these Catalogues are checked through Computer Media to prevent duplication thereby ensuring “Entry Control”.
Entry Control.‘Entry Control’ through Standardisation is planned and implemented for preventing variety of items from entering the supply system. When one service wishes to introduce any item, it shall first refer to the preferred Ranges or Joint Services Specifications issued on similar items. If item being introduced is dissimilar to that listed in a preferred Range or Joint Services Specification, it shall do so only after referring to the Directorate of Standardisation. Introduction of the items to the service are to be selected from the preferred Ranges of the items so that proliferation of the items is checked. Further, in case any item is available in any of the service; the utility of the same is to be checked by the service which wishes to introduce the item. For effective Entry Control, it is desirable to codify the entire current Defence inventory.
Variety Reduction. To achieve ‘Variety Reduction’, the following types of Standardisation documents are prepared:-
1. Joint Services Preferred Range (JSPR). JSPR is a list of stores/materials/ size and grades to cover the production preferred numbers, also called Renard Series. In the Defence industrial design, it forms the guidelines for choosing exact dimensions/values which govern the defence production. In our context it specifies the sizes/grades/capacities required for the users to cover their full requirement though many more grades and sizes may be available commercially.
2. The list of store belonging to a particular group/class are examined by the Sub-Committees and documents like Joint Services Preferred Range (JSPR) and Joint Services Rationalised List (JSRL) are prepared to ensure “Variety Reduction”. Further, Joint Services Specification (JSS) is prepared for particular store or Indian Standards (IS) is adopted based on the JSRL already prepared in that particular group class of stores/items.

DoS WEBSITE : CATALYST FOR OPTIMISING DEFENCE LOGISTIC MANAGEMENT

The Directorate website https://ddpdos.gov.in is managed by Data Network Complex (DNC). The website facilitates online availability in-house developed standards. The website contains following documents/publications that can be accessed by a registered defence user:-
1. All defence standards like JSSs, JSPRs, JSRLs, JSGs, ANs.
2. Manuals of Standardisation and Codification.
3. Approximately 21000 Indian Standards from BIS that can be directly printed.

4. Selected Naval Standards which are hosted by the IHQ MoD (Navy) and a separate password is allotted for the purpose with the approval of IHQ MoD (Navy)/PDEE.

5. Selected Naval Standards which are hosted by the IHQ MoD (Navy) and a separate password is allotted for the purpose with the approval of IHQ MoD (Navy)/PDNA.

Government Organisation under the Ministry of Defence can register themselves and obtain a User ID and password to access the above Standards/documents/publication. In order to start the registration process please Click Here or go to the login page and click on the new user link.