ISO
About ISO
ISO (International Organization for Standardization)
is the world's largest developer and publisher of International
Standards.
ISO is a network of the national standards institutes
of 162 countries, one member per country, with a Central
Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates
the system.
ISO is a non-governmental organization that forms a
bridge between the public and private sectors. On the
one hand, many of its member institutes are part of
the governmental structure of their countries, or are
mandated by their government. On the other hand, other
members have their roots uniquely in the private sector,
having been set up by national partnerships of industry
associations.
Therefore, ISO enables a consensus to be reached on
solutions that meet both the requirements of business
and the broader needs of society.
ISO's name
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.
When products and services meet our expectations, we
tend to take this for granted and be unaware of the
role of standards. However, when standards are absent,
we soon notice. We soon care when products turn out
to be of poor quality, do not fit, are incompatible
with equipment that we already have, are unreliable
or dangerous.
When products, systems, machinery and devices work
well and safely, it is often because they meet standards.
And the organization responsible for many thousands
of the standards which benefit the world is ISO.
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.
For businesses, the widespread adoption of International
Standards means that suppliers can develop and offer
products and services meeting specifications that have
wide international acceptance in their sectors. Therefore,
businesses using International Standards can compete
on many more markets around the world.
For innovators of new technologies, International Standards
on aspects like terminology, compatibility and safety
speed up the dissemination of innovations and their
development into manufacturable and marketable products.
For customers, the worldwide compatibility of technology
which is achieved when products and services are based
on International Standards gives them a broad choice
of offers. They also benefit from the effects of competition
among suppliers.
For governments, International Standards provide the
technological and scientific bases underpinning health,
safety and environmental legislation.
For trade officials, International Standards create
"a level playing field" for all competitors
on those markets. The existence of divergent national
or regional standards can create technical barriers
to trade. International Standards are the technical
means by which political trade agreements can be put
into practice.
For developing countries, International Standards that
represent an international consensus on the state of
the art are an important source of technological know-how.
By defining the characteristics that products and services
will be expected to meet on export markets, International
Standards give developing countries a basis for making
the right decisions when investing their scarce resources
and thus avoid squandering them.
For consumers, conformity of products and services
to International Standards provides assurance about
their quality, safety and reliability.
For everyone, International Standards contribute to
the quality of life in general by ensuring that the
transport, machinery and tools we use are safe.
For the planet we inhabit, International Standards
on air, water and soil quality, on emissions of gases
and radiation and environmental aspects of products
can contribute to efforts to preserve the environment.
ISO standards are voluntary. ISO itself does
not regulate or legislate.
As a non-governmental organization, ISO has
no legal authority to enforce the implementation of
its standards. ISO does not regulate or legislate. However,
countries may decide to adopt ISO standards - mainly
those concerned with health, safety or the environment
- as regulations or refer to them in legislation, for
which they provide the technical basis. In addition,
although ISO standards are voluntary, they may become
a market requirement, as has happened in the case of
ISO 9001 quality management systems, or of dimensions
of freight containers and bank cards.
The scope of ISO's work
ISO has more than 18 500 International Standards
and other types of normative documents in its current
portfolio. ISO's work programme ranges from standards
for traditional activities, such as agriculture and
construction, through mechanical engineering, manufacturing
and distribution, to transport, medical devices, information
and communication technologies, and to standards for
good management practice and for services.
Some 1100 new ISO standards are published every year.
See how of all standards, ISO 9001 and ISO
14001 are different.
The vast majority of ISO standards are highly
specific to a particular product, material, or process.
However, ISO 9001 (quality) and ISO 14001 (environment)
are "generic management system standards".
"Generic" means that the same standard can
be applied to any organization, large or small, whatever
its product or service, in any sector of activity, and
whether it is a business enterprise, a public administration,
or a government department. ISO 9001 contains a generic
set of requirements for implementing a quality management
system and ISO 14001 for an environmental management
system.
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