Allan Stewart

Allan Stewart held the position of CEO of Standards Australia from 1953-1974. He had a monumental impact towards the progression of standardisation in Australia. Through international research, Mr Stewart can be attributed with bringing the concept of quality control and process driven standards to Standards Australia. Mr Stewart’s work informed many standards practices that are still upheld to this day.  

Preceded by William Rayner Hebblewhite, Allan Stewart served as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Standards Australia (SA) from 1953 - 1974.  

Prior to taking on responsibility as CEO, Mr Stewart travelled to Britain and America to observe how they formed and developed process-related standards for quality control in the mass production industry. He brought back a wealth of knowledge to Australia for similar integration into national standards.  

During his time overseas, Mr Stewart conducted an extensive investigation of this quality control concept in practice, through discussion with leading standards development experts in the USA and Canada. He returned full of enthusiasm and the pursuit to mount a 'campaign' for establishing quality control in Australian defence industries, and in the manufacturing sector in general.

He gave Standards Australia the interim reports on his findings around how quality control was practised in the United States and put forward recommendations for its use in Australia. Most of these findings were crystallised in his paper; 'Standardisation activities in USA and Canada'.

Through in-person research conducted that contributed to this new standardisation concept, Mr Stewart spent time liaising with international counterparts which additionally played an important role in maintaining Standards Australia’s global links particularly with the International Organisation for Standards (ISO), BSI and the American National Standards Institute.  

Adrian O’Connell, CEO of Standards Australia, commends Mr Stewart’s endeavours, describing his efforts as the “foundation for the breadth of work Standards Australia would go on to do across many industries, creating standards in varying capacities both in terms of tangible constructions and systematic processes for safety and efficiency.”  

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