The political transformations taking place in Poland in the late 1980s initiated many changes in the national economy. These were further intensified as a result of Poland’s pursuit of integration with the countries of the European Union.
This situation caused the scope of the ongoing changes to be further expanded. Significant changes covered legal and standardization conditions, including Polish standardization.
Progressing privatization and the development of cooperation with European Union countries created the need to adapt the Polish standardization system to the models existing in most of these countries. In this situation, a new act, consistent with reality, had to be created.
A new approach was defined, the main goal of which became the maximum harmonization of Polish standards with European (EN) and international (ISO) standards.
In January 1994, the Act of April 3, 1993 on Standardization entered into force, which fundamentally changed the principles of conducting standardization activities, as well as the development and application of Polish Standards. The mere fact of establishing a new standardization act did not yet ensure the conditions for conducting standardization activities similar to those existing in European Union countries. These could only be created as a result of appropriate legislative and organizational actions, such as:
• establishing proper relations between regulations and standards
• drafting an act on general product safety
• drafting an act on certain consumer rights
• introducing systemic incentives for organizations, institutions, and enterprises financing standardization work
• introducing elements of knowledge about standardization into educational programs.
• drafting an act on general product safety
• drafting an act on certain consumer rights
• introducing systemic incentives for organizations, institutions, and enterprises financing standardization work
• introducing elements of knowledge about standardization into educational programs.
According to the Act on Standardization, the application of Polish Standards became voluntary unless one of them was cited (introduced) for mandatory application. Based on this act, the Minister of Industry and Trade introduced for mandatory application, by the Regulation of December 30, 1993 (Journal of Laws No. 20 of 1994, item 71), the standard BN-71/2187-01 Hand-operated pallet trucks – General requirements and tests.
Based on the new principles of conducting standardization activities, this standard was amended by the Standardization Problem Committee No. 248 for Industrial Trucks. The standard PN-M-78081 Hand-operated pallet trucks – General requirements and tests was developed, which replaced the standard BN-71/2187-01. However, after its establishment in December 1996, the PN-M-78081 standard was no longer introduced for mandatory application.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 2002/5.