Introduction to ISO

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is basically an Non-governmental organization (NGO). It was established in Geneva, Switzerland in 1947. Since then, it is making standards for the improvement and betterment of the organizations. Currently they have about 167 countries as their member.

Each member country have one body which represents ISO in their country, for example in USA it is ANSI, for UK it is BSI. The total list of the member and their respective bodies in the countries is available on the website.

Standards are helpful in order to maintain a single system worldwide, this is the basic purpose of ISO as well. A country from one end of the world can order something from a company from the other end of the world trusting that it has ISO certification so the product will be as per their needs.

Why is is called ISO and not IOS?

If we abbreviate International Organization for Standardization it will be IOS, however the founders of International Organization for Standardization adopted the acronym ISO, because they related it with Greek word “isos” which means “equal”.

Commonly use standards

There are more than 25000 ISO standards developed by International Organization for Standardization. Below we are giving you a short description of some of the commonly implemented,

What does ISO 9001 mean?

ISO 9001 is the quality management system standard (QMS). Quality means “fit for use” or in some way “customer satisfaction” is also called quality. In 9001 we make a management system, policies and procedures in order to achieve customer satisfaction. ISO 9001 is called mother of all standards, since it is the baseline guide for many other standards.

What does ISO 14001 mean?

ISO 14001 is the environment management system standard. It helps in organization making a system which will support in making the organizational procedures and activities unharmful for environment and surroundings.

What does ISO 45001 mean?

ISO 45001 is the occupational health and safety management system standard. It is the standard when organizations want to ensure that all employees, and stakeholders in the company premises or with company activities will not harm or injure anyone.

How to be gain certification

For certification, companies have to develop the management system internally or with the help of any independent consultant. The consultant will guide or make all the documentation. Once the system is developed companies have to hire certification bodies to audit them and issue certificate on successful assessment.