Original Date: 02/03/1997
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

After making the decision to become international in its scope and role, The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) established its first affiliate (SAE Brazil) in 1991. SAE’s membership is now available throughout the world with a focus on Europe (Great Britain, Germany), Russia, China, Brazil, India, Japan, Ukraine, Romania, and Korea.

To measure the success of its globalization program, SAE monitors: membership outside North America; percentage of non-North American committee members; membership retention rate outside North America; number of standards developed; and the health of joint meetings. Operating boards and committees have taken action to implement SAE’s globalization program. More than 2,000 non-North American members participate on SAE committees. International membership has increased over the last several years, and 30% of the hits on SAE’s website originate from overseas countries. As of 1997, all SAE standards and publications are only available in English. In addition, SAE has learned that what works in one country does not necessarily work in another. SAE now customizes its services and information to a specific country based on its culture and economy.

SAE provides the mobility industry input for the American National Standards Institute (the U.S. official member to ISO). Permitted to communicate directly to ISO, SAE advocates U.S. industry participation in the ISO standards development. With its focus on cutting costs, U.S. industry’s participation in ISO has been limited and relatively ineffective. As a result, a U.S. manufacturer who wanted to sell its products outside North America had to substantially modify those products to meet ISO requirements, causing significant additional costs. SAE is trying to educate U.S. industry on the payback which would result from increased participation in the ISO standards development process.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.