American National Standards Institute

What Does American National Standards Institute Mean?

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a non-profit organization charged with globally developing U.S. business competition by enabling and encouraging conformity assessment systems and voluntary consensus standards.

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ANSI represents nearly 1,000 government agencies, organizations and international and institutional members via its Washington, D.C. headquarters and New York branch office.

Techopedia Explains American National Standards Institute

Established in 1918, ANSI is supported by various private and public sector organizations. ANSI also works to harmonize U.S. and international standards to ensure that American products are utilized around the world.

ANSI facilitates the accreditation of standards designed by industry representatives, companies, consumer groups and government agencies, etc. These standards ensure:

  • Product features and functionality consistency
  • Term and definition uniformity
  • Identical product examination
  • Accreditation of companies that perform personnel or product certification

A standard created under conditions that are accessible, equitable and receptive to the specifications of numerous stakeholders are designated by ANSI as American National Standards (ANS). The fair and open ANS procedure ensures that all interested parties have the opportunity to participate in a standard’s development. ANS also assists and covers the public interest, as ANSI-certified standards should meet their requirements for visibility, consensus and balance, etc.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…