The customer standard is looser than the national one. Can we accept against it?

A: Yes, if the contract annex says so and no destination rule is stricter. The contract then governs the acceptance standard.

Does a company standard have to be filed?

A: Only when it is declared for outside sales, and 5 documents settle it. Internal documents need no filing, and cannot serve as an external basis.

When national and company standards clash, is the stricter one right?

A: Not automatically. The 4 levels decide: contract, drawing, then the filed company standard. Strictness is only the default when nothing is agreed.

Which version applies during the overlap?

A: The one in force when the order was signed, for 6 months of parallel running. Rework and claims follow that version.

Can the 14 items be reduced?

A: To about 10, but leave appearance and sealing alone. Record the cut on the acceptance standard list.

Acceptance Standard Choice

Quick answer: Acceptance standard choice is a ranking call: national, industry, company and customer documents gain force by specificity, and the contract breaks ties.

Fix the hierarchy before the severity
What each of the four levels covers
Where a company standard can be tighter
Ruling on conflicts: contract, drawing, company standard, national standard
Revisions and records: a 6-month overlap and 4 copies
FAQ

1. Fix the hierarchy before the severity

One 800-unit order arrives with three documents: the drawing says 2.8 mm wall, the company standard a 0.99 m drop, the buyer 1.1 m. Whether those units are received or rejected depends on which level governs, not which clause sounds tougher.

Severity is inherited from the level, not negotiated. A national standard decides whether a case may travel at all, a company standard states what the plant promises, and a customer document binds one account, once it sits in the contract annex.

A standard is not better for being strict. It is better for being decidable.

A usable acceptance standard answers three questions: which document the clause comes from, which method proves it, and which sheet records the result. Miss one and acceptance collapses into argument.

Level	Issued by	Scope	Force	Revision rhythm
National	National standards body	Minimum requirement across industries	Cited by regulation or contract	About 5 years
Industry	Sector body or association	Packaging for one use category	Named in the contract	3 to 5 years
Company	The manufacturer	Every product the plant makes	Self-declaration and filing	Reviewed every 2 years
Customer	The buyer	One account, one project	Contract annex	Follows the project

Once the levels are clear, disagreement is manageable. Where a national and a company standard differ, the answer is the contract, then the drawing.

2. What each of the four levels covers

A national standard sets the floor. The GB/T 4857 series covers drop, stacking, vibration and low pressure, fixing methods while leaving pass values to the user, so it proves a case can travel, not that it suits a line.

Acceptance standard at the foam stage: a black case half open on grey, wavy lid foam and seven empty cut-outs in the base

An industry standard sits closer to use. It splits by application and narrows the size series and stacking layers for returnable crates, which suits export work because it assumes repeated trips.

A company standard is bounded by the plant. It can lock all 14 inspection items and bind each to a method and a pass value. The risk runs the same way: a figure the plant cannot hold becomes a batch of rejections once a buyer tests it.

A customer document governs one account, arriving as a purchasing specification or quality annex, short and hard, with no authority over anyone else. Copying it into the company standard ties every line to one buyer.

Order the four by specificity, not by strictness.

3. Where a company standard can be tighter

Being tighter than the national standard is normal, but only in the right places. Drop, stacking and pressure retention matter most, because they map onto transport and storage failures.

Drop height rises from 0.9 m to 0.99 m, a 10% step. That 0.09 m changes the cushioning: at the same foam thickness corner acceleration climbs, and as drop faces grow from 6 to 10, packaging cost rises about 3%.

Stacking time goes from 24 h to 48 h, testing creep rather than strength. A stack of 5 layers held for 3 months cannot be modelled in 24 h; 48 h pulls the slow deformation out of the wall.

Pressure retention tightens from 30 kPa to 20 kPa, measuring the seal margin. A smaller differential is harder to hold, and a case passing 20 kPa is steadier under low-pressure transport and thermal cycling.

Do not raise everything. Lifting appearance, colour and print by 10% adds sorting hours and prevents no failure.

4. Ruling on conflicts: contract, drawing, company standard, national standard

Conflict is normal. The drawing says 2.8 mm, the company standard 3.0 mm, the customer document 3.2 mm, and all three are live, so the first question is whether the contract nominates one.

Acceptance standard on an empty case: an olive-green case open on a steel bench, lid foam grooves and kraft-wrapped blocks inside

Without a nomination the ruling runs through 4 levels: contract, drawing, company standard, national standard. The contract leads because it records what both sides agreed, the drawing follows for being specific, and the national standard catches what is left.

A customer document outranks the company standard in only 2 situations: it is named as a contract annex, or the destination market regulates packaging above the domestic level. Verbal requests carry no weight.

Put the ruling on one sheet: an acceptance standard list, 1 main page and 3 annex pages, source marked against every item and the ruling beside each conflict. That is the only sheet an inspector opens.

5. Revisions and records: a 6-month overlap and 4 copies

Standards get revised. Filing a company standard takes 5 documents: the text, the drafting note, the test method annex, the judgment table and the filing receipt. Until then, a revision has no force against a buyer.

The overlap runs 6 months. Old orders finish under the old version while new orders start under the new one, and every record must name the version in force, otherwise a rework cannot be traced.

The 14 inspection items split into 3 groups: appearance and marking 5, dimensions and fit 5, performance and sealing 4. The split assigns responsibility: appearance is judged at the bench, dimensions need gauges, sealing needs a test rig.

Group	Items	Source of the judgment	Who judges
Appearance and marking	5	Company annex and colour chip	Incoming inspector
Dimensions and fit	5	Drawing and gauges	Dimensional inspector
Performance and sealing	4	Company and national methods	Test laboratory

Records run in 4 copies: plant self-check, customer receipt, quality archive and settlement. All 4 carry one number, and an incomplete set counts as no record. Keep them 24 months, longer than most claim windows.

Conclusion

Choosing an acceptance standard is a matter of ranking, not of picking the toughest clause. The national standard catches the floor, the company standard states the promise, a customer document moves ahead once it enters the contract, and conflicts resolve through 4 levels. Tighten only drop, stacking and pressure; judge 14 items in 3 groups.

This article covers case-side specifications only and does not address any handling, loading or use of the contents.