ISO

Environment for Business

International Organization for Standardization

Because "International Organization for Standardization" would have different acronyms in different languages ("IOS" in English, "OIN" in French for Organisation internationale de normalisation), its founders decided to give it also a short, all-purpose name. They chose "ISO", derived from the Greek isos, meaning "equal". Whatever the country, whatever the language, the short form of the organization's name is always ISO.

Why standards matter?

Standards make an enormous and positive contribution to most aspects of our lives. Standards ensure desirable characteristics of products and services such as quality, environmental friendliness, safety, reliability, efficiency and interchangeability - and at an economical cost.

What standards do?

ISO standards:
Make the development, manufacturing and supply of products and services more efficient, safer and cleaner Facilitate trade between countries and make it fairer Provide governments with a technical base for health, safety and environmental legislation, and conformity assessment Share technological advances and good management practice disseminate innovation Safeguard consumers, and users in general, of products and services Make life simpler by providing solutions to common problems

Who standards benefit ?

ISO standards provide technological, economic and societal benefits. Businesses Innovators of new technologies Customers Governments Trade officials Developing countries, Consumers For everyone, For the planet we inhabit

The ISO brand

Democratic Voluntary Market-driven Consensus Globally relevant

The scope of ISO's work

ISO has more than 17500 International Standards and other types of normative documents in its current portfolio. ISO's work programme ranges from standards for activities, such as
agriculture and construction mechanical engineering manufacturing and distribution transport medical devices information and communication technologies standards for good management practice and for services.

Examples of the benefits standards provide

Standardization helps in production and solves the repair and maintenance problems. Standards establishing an international consensus on terminology make technology transfer easier and safer. Without the standardized dimensions of freight containers, international trade would be slower and more expensive. Without the standardization of telephone and banking cards, life would be more complicated. A lack of standardization may even affect the quality of life itself. E.g. for the disabled. Standardized symbols provide danger warnings and information across linguistic frontiers.

Examples of the benefits standards provide (2)

Consensus on grades of various materials gives a common reference for suppliers and clients in business dealings. Agreement on a sufficient number of variations of a product to meet most current applications allows economies of scale with cost benefits for both producers and consumers. For e.g. the standardization of paper sizes. Standardization of performance or safety requirements of diverse equipment makes sure that users' needs are met while allowing individual manufacturers the freedom to design their own solution on how to meet those needs. Standardized computer protocols allow products from different vendors to "talk" to each other.

Examples of the benefits standards provide (3)

Standardized documents speed up the transit of goods, or identify sensitive or dangerous cargoes that may be handled by people speaking different languages. Standardization of connections and interfaces of all types ensures the compatibility of equipment of diverse origins and the interoperability of different technologies. Agreement on test methods allows meaningful comparisons of products, or plays an important part in controlling pollution whether by noise, vibration or emissions. Safety standards for machinery protect people at work. Without the international agreement contained in ISO standards on metric quantities and units, shopping and trade, science and technological development would be haphazard.

What "international standardization" means

When the large majority of products or services in a particular business or industry sector conform to International Standards, a state of industry-wide standardization exists. The economic stakeholders concerned agree on specifications and criteria to be applied consistently in the classification of materials, in the manufacture and supply of products, in testing and analysis, in terminology and in the provision of services. In this way, International Standards provide a reference framework, or a common technological language, between suppliers and their customers. This facilitates trade and the transfer of technology.

ISO's origins
In 1946, delegates from 25 countries met in London and decided to create a new international organization, of which the object would be "to facilitate the international coordination and unification of industrial standards". The new organization, ISO, officially began operations on 23 February 1947, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Who can join ISO

Membership of ISO is open to national standards institutes most representative of standardization in their country (one member in each country). Full members, known as member bodies, each have one vote, whatever the size or strength of the economy of the country concerned. Correspondent members pay reduced membership fees. They are entitled to participate in any policy or technical body as observers, with no voting rights. Subscriber members also pay reduced membership fees. They are institutes from countries with very small economies that nevertheless wish to maintain contact with international standardization.

Who can join ISO (2)

Although individuals or enterprises are not eligible for membership, both have a range of opportunities for taking part in ISO's work:
Individuals may be selected by national member institutes to serve as experts on national delegations participating in ISO technical committees Individuals and enterprises may provide their input during the process of developing a national consensus for presentation by the delegation. This may done through national mirror committees to the corresponding ISO technical committee International organizations & associations, both non-governmental and representing industry sectors, can apply for liaison status to a technical committee. They do not vote, but can participate in the debates and the development of consensus.

How the ISO system is managed

General assembly ISO Council Operations are managed by
Secretary General based at ISO Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland

How the ISO is financed

Subscriptions Sale of standards Subsidizing the technical work

ISOs international partners

International Electronic Commission (IEC) World Standards Cooperation (WSC) United Nations (UN)
CODEX Alimentarius (on food safety) UN Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) World Health Organization International Maritime Organization World Tourism Organization

World Economic Forum (WEF) Consumers International (CI) World Business Council for Sustainable Development International Federation of Standards Users (IFAN)

Stages of development of ISO Standards

Stage 1: Proposal Stage Stage 2: Preparatory Stage Stage 3: Committee Stage Stage 4: Enquiry Stage Stage 5: Approval Stage Stage 6: Publication Stage

ISOs global relevance policy

The required characteristics of an international standard is that it can be used and implemented as broadly as possible by affected industries & other stakeholders in markets around the world.

Definitions
Standard
Document, established by consensus & approved by a recognized body, that provides for common & repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context.

International standard
Standard that is adopted by an international standardizing / standards organization & made available to the public

Regulation
Document providing binding legislative rules, that is adopted by an authority

Technical regulation
Regulation that provides technical requirements, either directly or by referring to or incorporating the content of a standard, technical specification or code of practice.

Relationship between standards & regulations

ISO & IEC standards
Support the technical aspects of societal & environmental policies & contribute to sustainable development across the world. Offer the same level of consumer protection. Allow products to be supplied & used across different markets, facilitating regulatory compliance & enhancing the market access opportunities for small enterprises Reflect the state of art & serve as a vehicle for the dissemination of new technologies & innovative practices. Are developed using procedures which ensure that the thousands of standards available avoid duplication & conflict with each other.

What's different about ISO 9001 and ISO 14001

The vast majority of ISO standards are highly specific to a particular product, material, or process. However, ISO 9001 (quality) & ISO 14001 (environment) are "generic management system standards". ISO 9001 contains a generic set of requirements for implementing a quality management system and ISO 14001 for an environmental management system.

ISO 9000
ISO 9000 is a series of international quality standards developed by ISO. The idea behind the standards is defects can be prevented through the planning & application of best practices at every stage of business from design through manufacturing & then installation & servicing. These standards focus on identifying criteria by which any organization, regardless of whether it is manufacturing or service oriented, can ensure that product leaving its facility meets the requirements of its customer.

Categories of ISO 9000

Fundamentally these standards can be grouped into two categories Requirements mandatory standards that dictate what a company shall do.
ISO 9001 design, development, production , installation & servicing ISO 9002 production installation & servicing ISO 9003 final inspection & test ISO 10012 requirements for measuring equipment

Guidelines assist a company to interpret standards or what it should do

ISO 8402 quality management & quality assurance vocabulary ISO 9000 Guidelines for selection & use ISO 9004 quality management & quality system elements ISO 10011 guidelines for auditing quality systems ISO 10013 guidelines for quality manuals

ISO 9000 standards : areas of application in production, flow & guidelines for use
Design / Development Procurement Production Installation Servicing

ISO 9003

ISO 9002

ISO 9001

ISO 9000 Certification

There are 3 forms of certification
First party: a firm audits itself against ISO 9000 standards Second party: a customer audits its supplier Third party: a qualified national or international standards or certifying agency serves as auditor.

ISO 14000
The ISO 14000 is a standard for environmental management systems that is applicable to any business, regardless of size, location or income. The aim of the standard is to reduce the environmental footprint of a business and to decrease the pollution and waste a business produces. In order for an organization to be awarded an ISO 14001 certificate they must be externally audited by an audit body that has been accredited by an accreditation body.

Categories of ISO 14000

ISO 14001 Environmental management systemsRequirements with guidance for use ISO 14004 Environmental management systemsGeneral guidelines on principles, systems and support techniques ISO 14015 Environmental assessment of sites and organizations ISO 14020 series (14020 to 14025) Environmental labels and declarations ISO 14031Environmental performance evaluationGuidelines ISO 14040 series (14040 to 14049),Life Cycle Assessment, LCA, discusses pre-production planning and environment goal setting. ISO 14050 terms and definitions. ISO 14062 discusses making improvements to environmental impact goals. ISO 14063 Environmental communicationGuidelines and examples

ISO 19011
ISO 19011 is an international standard that sets forth guidelines for:
quality management systems auditing environmental management systems auditing

The standard offers four resources to organizations to "save time, effort and money":
A clear explanation of the principles of management systems auditing. Guidance on the management of audit programmes. Guidance on the conduct of internal or external audits. Advice on the competence and evaluation of auditors.

Other ISO series

ISO 22000 specifies requirements for a food safety management system The ISO 27000 series of standards for information security matters. ISO 8859 is a standardized series of 8bit character sets for writing in Western alphabetic languages. The ISO/TS16949 is an international standard aiming to the development of a quality management system that provides for continual improvement, emphasizing defect prevention and the reduction of variation and waste in the supply chain.
ISO/IEC 80000 Quantities and units

Other ISO series (2)

ISO/IEC 20000 is the international standard for IT Service Management. ISO/TS 15000-1 Electronic business eXtensible Markup Language (ebXML) -- Part 1: Collaboration-protocol profile and agreement specification (ebCPP) ISO 16000-1:2004 is intended to aid the planning of indoor pollution monitoring. ISO 31000: Risk management ISO 32000 Document management Portable document format ISO/IEC 38500 Corporate governance of information technology