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Standardization is an excellent process to make sure that your consumers get the same product every time. It builds their trust in your product or service. Standardization also allows you to build a loyal customer base by providing them with the same product they use the first time. If a product is not standardized, it might not gain the same kind of popularity. Customers believe that a company that puts effort into standardization cares about them. Standardization also has a few demerits for business owners. Let’s tell you about the advantages and disadvantages of standardization in detail.

What is Standardization?

Standardization in an industry refers to maintaining consistency among the services and products offered by a company. The services in all aspects must offer the same core values. Similarly, the products must have the same quality throughout. If any changes are made, they must not affect the characteristics of the goods.

 A company follows a particular set of protocols to ensure that the product or service is consistent. They devise the strategies once and make sure to adhere to them. Mostly these guidelines are per the national standards. However, you must follow international regulations when producing goods for the international market.

Standardizing a product or service is based on following the safety protocols and considering the needs of the consumers. It requires adapting the same technology for producing that product and checking product quality on the same parameters. Every product or service has particular standards to ensure consistency and uniformity.

Advantages of Standardization

Improved Production Efficiency

The production efficiency improves when the technology and manufacturing methods are designed per a specific product. When you produce a product according to the same standards, you do not have to worry about innovation. Establishing production rules and manufacturing goods on predetermined standards reduces time and enhances manufacturing efficiency.

Cost Reduction

Better production efficiency also means reduced cost. When the production facility is designed to produce one kind of product only, buying the raw material in bulk brings down the cost. You do not have to spend more money adjusting the machinery to different products or variations of the product. It also saves the added cost of varying raw materials and maintenance. Producing products according to a standard without any changes lessens the cost.

Quality Assurance

Standardization of a service or product ensures that all pieces of a particular product are of the same quality. Having a standard quality standard for all enables you to detect issues with the product. The quality checkers and assurance officers make sure to check the products before packing. The quality of the product and packaging gives the customers a sense of satisfaction with a high-quality product.

Adaption Cost Reduction

Having a standardized process avoids the cost of adaptation. It is more expensive to devise a particular service or good for a specific consumer base. Customizing a product requires gathering data, extensive searching, and looking for various marketing techniques to attract customers. Standardizing a product helps you save the cost of customizing the product. The saved cost depends on the company’s manufacturing.

International Opportunities

Reaching the international market has enabled companies to make more profit by catering to a wider customer base. Today, globalization has caused an increase in the need for similar products of the best quality. People are looking to buy products from different countries. Catering to international markets requires you to make sure each product is uniform. By producing standardized products, you can sell your products beyond borders.

Consumer Benefits

Standardization of a product reduces confusion among consumers. When consumers are aware of the quality standards of a product, they do not look for other options. On the contrary, if the product is not uniform and does not meet the standard of the consumers, they avoid it. Product standardization provides safe, better-quality products to the customers.

Disadvantages of Standardization

Equipment Differences

Standardizing products is not feasible when the product is manufactured in multiple production facilities. Various countries have specific systems and equipment that may differ from other locations. Sometimes, the equipment might not have the same specifications either. Thus, you will need to adjust the equipment per need.

Failure to Adapt

Today, consumers want to get the most according to the changing trends. Many consumers purchase the same standardized products, while others like innovation in the products. Focusing on providing the same features in a product over the years might push the customers to another company. Standardization halts you from catering to the needs of such customers.

Cultural Differences

Product or service standardization is not the best choice sometimes. It may not prove feasible when catering to people from different backgrounds. For example, some tea containing alcohol components is not the right choice for some cultures. It is not labeled halal and is unsuitable for selling globally in Muslim countries. It is better to customize products depending on the customer’s needs.

The Bottom Line

Standardization helps provide uniform and consistent quality products to the customers. It enables them to trust your brand and becomes loyal customers. However, it also hinders adaptation to the modern needs of the consumers. Standardization and customization must work according to the regional and individual consumer requirements.

Manager and supervisor are often used interchangeably in conversations. While organizations have a different hierarchy of roles and designations, management and supervision are quite different. People who supervise employees are called supervisors, whereas those who manage tasks within a department are known as managers.

Now, you may wonder; that sounds the same!

Yes, that does sound the same. Managers and supervisors both have leadership roles within the company. But, they are not identical in terms of responsibility and authority. Let’s take you through the differences between management and supervision for a detailed understanding.

What is a Manager?

The primary function of a manager is to manage how things take place in a department. Managers typically make decisions about a business in a particular domain or various areas of business operation. They are involved in recruiting new people, identifying jobs of other employees working under them, and ensuring the completion of tasks on time. They also determine the resources utilized by their department to execute specific tasks. For example, a quality control manager is responsible for ensuring that all the processes are aligned, and the products are of standard quality. Yet, he might not go to the processing facility all the time to access work.

Roles of Management

The four major roles include planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Management plans the timelines for the department and organizes pathways to achieve the timelines and goals. They make sure to be the leaders in situations employees need their assistance to perform better. Other roles of management include:

• Dealing with the issues within the workplace when brought to them by the supervisors.
• Make sure that the supervisors are kind and fair to the workers.
• Evaluating the performance and competency of employees and finding the reason for poor performance.
• Managers also assist the HR professionals in HR functions including hiring and staffing to ensure they find the best fit for their department.
• Making decisions for the designated responsibilities for the best benefit of the company and the employees.
• Controlling and monitoring expenses, and managing them within the budget.
• Setting goals for the future and encouraging other teammates to perform their best.

What is a Supervisor?

Supervisors also have a leadership role in the company. But, they work under the manager. Supervision mainly includes keeping an eye on the employees’ day-to-day activities in the department. They ensure that the tasks are completed in time by the works, and the goals are achieved per the manager’s instructions and timeline. They also act as a bridge between employees and the upper hierarchy. Supervisors usually have an informal relationship with their workers to encourage them to do better. They initially study a situation to assess if it needs the manager’s attention.

Roles of Supervision

As manager leads the supervisors, they lead other workers under them. Major roles of supervision in a company are:

• While the manager contributes to hiring new talent, supervisors train them to gel in the environment.
• Reporting to seniors and HR professionals when needed.
• Accessing the performance of the workers and reporting their evaluation to the managers.
• Acting as a connector between the manager and the employees.
• Resolving conflicts between employees if they are not significant enough to be forwarded to the manager.
• Managing schedules and keeping everyone on track to ensure that all goals are achieved in time.

Management vs Supervision

As mentioned already, management is the manager’s job, while supervision is the supervisor’s task. Here are all the differences between manager and supervisor to help you understand Management vs Supervision.

Role

Manager

A manager’s role in a company is to create goals and encourage the employees to achieve them. He focuses on the management processes and is concerned with timely finishing projects.

Supervisor

The supervisor accesses the individual performance of workers and their contribution to the operation. He makes sure that all the processes are moving according to the timeline and takes care of daily functional activities.

Position

Manager

A manager has a middle-level managerial position, and he is directly connected to the upper hierarchy.

Supervisor

Conversely, the supervisor is in a low-level leadership position where he deals with the workers. He cannot directly connect to the CEO or Board of Directors.

Responsibilities 

Manager

Managers have various responsibilities within the company like discussing the budget, managing tasks, and supervisors, communicating with the company leaders, evaluating the performance of employees and supervisors, and ensuring goal achievement.

Supervisor

Supervisors deal with the workers directly, resolve their disputes, monitor daily assigned tasks, manage workflow, and train new employees.

Decision-making

Manager

Managers are the decision-makers in a business, especially in their department. They decide goals, budget, and the timeline for projects. Managers can also make different types of decisions about the promotion and demotion of employees.

Supervisor

While supervisors can recommend a worker for a different (or better) position, they are not decision-makers. They rely on the decisions made by managers.

Now Hiring

Manager

Managers work with the Human Resource department to hire new talent per the department’s needs.

Supervisor

Supervisors are not involved in the hiring process. Instead, they are responsible for training the new hires and accustoming them to the company.

The Bottom Line

Management and supervision are both essential parts for a company to function properly. It is difficult for the manager to monitor every employee’s performance. That is why supervisors are assigned over a group of employees. Managers hire new people with HR, manage the budget, and deal with the issues between supervisors and employees. Conversely, supervisors train new employees, evaluate their performance, make decisions, and set goals for the future.