ISO (In­ter­na­tion­al Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Stan­dard­iza­tion)

ISO stands for In­ter­na­tion­al Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Stan­dard­iza­tion, the as­so­ci­a­tion in charge of the de­vel­op­ment of in­ter­na­tion­al standards. On the one hand, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of an ISO standard guar­an­tees that re­quire­ments for quality and safety are met, and on the other hand, that companies, au­thor­i­ties, and in­sti­tu­tions use uniform standards worldwide.

The In­ter­na­tion­al Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Stan­dard­iza­tion (ISO) is an in­de­pen­dent, non-gov­ern­men­tal or­ga­ni­za­tion es­tab­lished in 1947 under Swiss law. ISO consists of several stan­dard­iza­tion or­ga­ni­za­tions that are re­spon­si­ble for the de­vel­op­ment and pub­li­ca­tion of in­ter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized ISO standards. These include industry standards, guide­lines, rules, and re­quire­ments to maintain quality, safety, and uni­for­mi­ty.

The standards cover all areas except elec­tron­ics, electrics, and telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions. The In­ter­na­tion­al Elec­trotech­ni­cal Com­mis­sion (IEC) and the In­ter­na­tion­al Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion Union (ITU) are re­spon­si­ble for these re­spec­tive­ly. The trio of ISO, IEC, and ITU forms the World Standards Co­op­er­a­tion (WSC), which is generally re­spon­si­ble for in­ter­na­tion­al stan­dard­iza­tion.

ISO standards are developed by the ISO to establish globally ap­plic­a­ble safety, quality, and uni­for­mi­ty standards. These are intended to optimize in­ter­na­tion­al pro­duc­tion, man­u­fac­tur­ing, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and co­op­er­a­tion between countries, companies, and in­sti­tu­tions in fields such as business, the sciences, and technical de­vel­op­ment. An ISO standard defines specific quality and form re­quire­ments and guar­an­tees that com­pli­ance is made visible by ISO cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. The standards are published monthly in the ISO Bulletin and in the Standard Handbooks. ISO standards can be rec­og­nized by the ab­bre­vi­a­tion of the re­spec­tive or­ga­ni­za­tion for stan­dard­iza­tion and a number from 1 to 99999.

The ISO is active in almost every part of our daily lives and business fields, and comprises over 20,000 standards and technical spec­i­fi­ca­tions. The best-known and most important standards can be found in areas such as quality man­age­ment systems, the en­vi­ron­ment, oc­cu­pa­tion­al health and safety, medicine, pro­duc­tion, or food safety. Well-known standards can also be found in health pro­tec­tion, data and in­for­ma­tion security, and com­pli­ance.

Some of the most common ISO standards include:

• ISO 27001: In­for­ma­tion security
• ISO 8601: Date and time spec­i­fi­ca­tions
• ISO 50001: Energy man­age­ment
• ISO 14001: En­vi­ron­men­tal man­age­ment
• ISO 45001: Work safety man­age­ment
• ISO 31000: Risk man­age­ment
• ISO 9001: Quality man­age­ment
• ISO 26000: Business ethics (not a cer­ti­fi­able standard, but a guide on sus­tain­abil­i­ty, social re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, trans­paren­cy, human rights, ethics)

ISO standards are developed by national and in­ter­na­tion­al standards working groups. Standards are developed, reviewed, approved, and published as in­ter­na­tion­al standards at regular intervals by ISO members. The process from de­vel­op­ment to pub­li­ca­tion has six stages:

1. Proposal/pre­lim­i­nary step (NP - New Work Item Proposal): New stan­dard­iza­tion plans are collected, evaluated, and ranked by stan­dard­iza­tion com­mit­tees.
2. Draft (WP – Working Draft): Expert working groups develop basic drafts.

Committee Draft (CD): National rep­re­sen­ta­tives prepare initial draft standard.

1. Survey (DIS - Draft In­ter­na­tion­al Standard): A draft on the survey is published for voting or comments. If less than 75 percent of members approve, a second survey draft is done. If the DIS is approved by a clear majority, the FDIS phase can be skipped.
2. Approval (FDIS – Final Draft In­ter­na­tion­al Standard): The final draft is published for comment, survey, and vote. If the majority includes at least two-thirds of members, the FDIS goes into the pub­li­ca­tion phase.
3. Pub­li­ca­tion (ISO standard): The new ISO standard is published, for example, in the ISO Bulletin and the Standard Handbook.

Another phase is the revision. Since an ISO standard is only useful if it’s up to date with current technical and social standards, the ISO is reviewed with relevance, accuracy, and time­li­ness in mind after five years at the latest. If there’s potential for im­prove­ment, the standard is revised. If there’s no reason to revise, the ISO standard is withdrawn and replaced by a new, updated standard.

In­di­vid­ual cer­ti­fi­ca­tion isn’t done by the ISO, but by external bodies and service providers. The ISO advises against using terms like “ISO cer­ti­fi­ca­tion” or “ISO-certified.” Instead, the ISO standard should include the version number to indicate that products, services, or systems meet ISO re­quire­ments.

Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion by external, in­de­pen­dent testing bodies isn’t free. The costs depend on the size of the company, the industry, and the initial cer­ti­fi­ca­tion or re­cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. Although getting a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is expensive and time consuming, it offers numerous ad­van­tages:

• Evidence of in­ter­na­tion­al­ly accepted standards and norms act as a stamp of rep­utabil­i­ty and pro­fes­sion­al­ism.
• Products and services that meet ISO standards inspire customer con­fi­dence.
• Quality standards ensure internal and in­ter­na­tion­al con­sis­ten­cy, ef­fi­cien­cy, and security of man­age­ment systems in various business areas and in­sti­tu­tions.
• Com­pli­ance with in­ter­na­tion­al standards enables con­sis­ten­cy and seamless co­op­er­a­tion across borders.

Depending on the standard and the re­spon­si­ble body for cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process may include these steps and stages:

• Gather in­for­ma­tion on the ISO standard in question
• Identify struc­tures and process flows within your business that don’t meet ISO re­quire­ments
• Document op­ti­miza­tion areas and plans
• Implement ISO standards
• Verify com­pli­ance with the ISO standard through internal audits
• Apply for official com­pli­ance audit or cer­ti­fi­ca­tion from re­spon­si­ble body

The validity of an acquired ISO cer­tifi­cate is usually three years. In the case of ISO 9901, sur­veil­lance audits must also be carried out in the two following years after cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. If ISO validity expires, the ISO cer­ti­fi­ca­tion can or should be refreshed by a re-cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. In the case of ISO 9001, it can take between three and six months to get this, depending on the com­plex­i­ty of company struc­tures and systems.