This article suggests that standards are the key enablers of past, present and future manufacturing paradigm shifts. A brief historical review describes the development of manufacturing and the pivotal role standards played. Manufacture was craft-based until national standards had been developed and enabled mass production. Standards played a similar role in the shift to lean manufacture. Lately, there has been a growing environmental/sustainability emphasis. Hence, new manufacturing technologies have been, and indeed are being, developed for end-of-life-processing. We are approaching, if not in, a new ‘un-manufacturing’ paradigm, driven by sustainability. Standards are enabling this shift. Typically, there are environmental management standards, e.g. the ISO 14000, and eco-design initiatives, e.g. the energy-using products (EuP) directive. Specific to product design is the suite of BS 8887 standards with the acronym ‘MADE’ (manufacture, assembly, disassembly and end-of-life processing).

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