ISO Standards

Introduction The International Organization for Standardization widely known as ISO is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial standards. It has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. 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.

History
The organization's logos in two of its official languages, English and French, include the word ISO, and it is usually referred to by this short-form name. ISO asserts that ISO is not an acronym for the organization's full name in either official language; rather, the organization adopted ISO based on the Greek word isos, meaning equal _ recognizing that the organizations initials would be different in different languages, the organization's founders chose ISO as the universal short form of its name. How ISO decides to develop a standard? ISO launches the development of new standards in response to sectors and stakeholders that express a clearly established need for them. An industry sector or other stakeholder group typically communicates its requirement for a standard to one of ISO's national members. The latter then proposes the new work item to the relevant ISO technical committee developing standards in that area. New work items may also be proposed by organizations in liaison (see below) with such committees. When work items do not

relate to existing committees, proposals may also be made by ISO members to set up new technical committees to cover new fields of activity. To be accepted for development, a proposed work item must receive the majority support of the participating members of the ISO technical committee which, amongst other criteria, verifies the "global relevance" of the proposed item this means that it indeed responds to an international need and will eventually be suitable for implementation on as broad a basis as possible worldwide. In addition to the technical committees that address standardization in a specific field, ISO also has policy development committees addressing the standardization needs of developing countries (DEVCO), consumers (COPOLCO) and conformity assessment (CASCO). These may recommend the development of new standards for their stakeholder groups, which are then submitted to the approval process described above, or in the case of CASCO, develop new standards itself. Who develops ISO standards? ISO standards are developed by technical committees, (subcommittees or project committees) comprising experts from the industrial, technical and business sectors which have asked for the standards and which subsequently put them to use. These experts may be joined by representatives of government agencies, testing laboratories, consumer associations, nongovernmental organizations and academic circles. Proposals to establish new technical committees are submitted to all ISO national member bodies, who may opt to be participating (P), observer (O) or non-members of the committee. The secretariat (i.e. the body providing the administrative support to the work of the committee) is allocated by the Technical Management Board (which itself reports to the ISO Council), usually to the ISO member body which made the proposal. The secretariat is responsible for nominating an individual to act as chair of the technical committee. The chair is formally appointed by the Technical Management Board. Experts participate as national delegations, chosen by the ISO national member body for the country concerned. National delegations are required to represent not just the views of the organizations in which their participating experts work, but those of other stake holders too. National delegations are usually based on and supported by national mirror committees to which the delegations report. According to ISO rules, the national member body is expected to take account of the views of all parties interested in the standard under development. This enables them to present a consolidated, national consensus position to the technical committee.

International and regional organizations from both business and the public sector may apply for liaison status to participate in developing a standard, or to be informed about the work. Such organizations in liaisons are accepted through voting by the relevant ISO committee. They may comment on successive drafts, propose new work items or even propose documents for fast tracking , but they have no voting rights. How ISO standards are developed? The national delegations of experts of a committee meet to discuss, debate and argue until they reach consensus on a draft agreement. The organizations in liaison also take part in this work. In some cases, advanced work within these organizations means that substantial technical development and debate has already occurred, leading to some international recognition and in this case, a document may be submitted for "fast-track" processing. In both cases, the resulting document is circulated as a Draft International Standard (DIS) to all ISO's member bodies for voting and comment. If the voting is in favor, the document, with eventual modifications, is circulated to the ISO members as a Final Draft International Standard (FDIS). If that vote is positive, the document is then published as an International Standard. Every working day of the year, an average of seven ISO technical meetings takes place around the world. In between meetings, the experts continue the standards' development work by correspondence. Increasingly, their work is carried out by electronic means, which speeds up the development of standards and cuts travel costs. Public access Most ISO members have some form of public review procedures for making proposed work items and draft standards known and available to interested parties. The ISO members then take account of any feedback they receive in formulating their position on the proposed work item or on the draft standard. Draft standards are also available for sale to interested members of the public who can provide input through the ISO member in their country. The public can purchase International Standards through the ISO Web Store or through ISO's national members. Consensus Because ISO standards are voluntary agreements, they need to be based on a solid consensus of international expert opinion. Consensus, which requires the resolution of substantial objections, is an essential procedural principle. Although it is necessary for the technical work to progress speedily, sufficient time is required before the approval stage for the discussion, negotiation and resolution of significant technical disagreements.

"Consensus" is officially defined (in ISO/IEC Guide 2) as "general agreement, characterized by the absence of sustained opposition to substantial issues by any important part of the concerned interests and by a process that involves seeking to take into account the views of all parties concerned and to reconcile any conflicting arguments". The definition notes, "Consensus need not imply unanimity". Voting For a document to be accepted as an ISO International Standard, it must be approved by at least two-thirds of the ISO national members that participated in its development and not be disapproved by more than a quarter of all ISO members who vote on it.

Stages of development of international standards

Stage 1: Proposal stage The first step in the development of an International Standard is to confirm that a particular International Standard is needed. A new work item proposal (NP) is submitted for vote by the members of the relevant TC or SC to determine the inclusion of the work item in the programme of work. The proposal is accepted if a majority of the P-members of the TC/SC votes in favour and if at least five P-members declare their commitment to participate actively in the project. At this stage a project leader responsible for the work item is normally appointed. Stage 2: Preparatory stage Usually, a working group of experts, the chairman (convener) of which is the project leader, is set up by the TC/SC for the preparation of a working draft. Successive working drafts may be considered until the working group is satisfied that it has developed the best technical solution to the problem being addressed. At this stage, the draft is forwarded to the working group's parent committee for the consensus-building phase. Stage 3: Committee stage As soon as a first committee draft is available, it is registered by the ISO Central Secretariat. It is distributed for comment and, if required, voting, by the P-members of the TC/SC. Successive committee drafts may be considered until consensus is reached on the technical content. Once consensus has been attained, the text is finalized for submission as a draft International Standard (DIS). Stage 4: Enquiry stage The draft International Standard (DIS) is circulated to all ISO member bodies by the ISO Central Secretariat for voting and comment within a period of five months. It is approved for submission as a final draft International Standard (FDIS) if a two-thirds majority of the P-members of the TC/SC are in favor and not more than one-quarter of the total number of votes cast are negative.

If the approval criteria are not met, the text is returned to the originating TC/SC for further study and a revised document will again be circulated for voting and comment as a draft International Standard. Stage 5: Approval stage The final draft International Standard (FDIS) is circulated to all ISO member bodies by the ISO Central Secretariat for a final Yes/No vote within a period of two months. If technical comments are received during this period, they are no longer considered at this stage, but registered for consideration during a future revision of the International Standard. The text is approved as an International Standard if a two-thirds majority of the P-members of the TC/SC is in favour and not more than one-quarter of the total number of votes cast are negative. If these approval criteria are not met, the standard is referred back to the originating TC/SC for reconsideration in light of the technical reasons submitted in support of the negative votes received. Stage 6: Publication stage Once a final draft International Standard has been approved, only minor editorial changes, if and where necessary, are introduced into the final text. The final text is sent to the ISO Central Secretariat which publishes the International Standard. Environmental standard (14000) The ISO 14000 environmental management standards exist to help organizations (a) minimize how their operations (processes etc.) negatively affect the environment (i.e. cause adverse changes to air, water, or land); (b) comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other environmentally oriented requirements, and (c) continually improve in the above. ISO 14000 is similar to ISO 9000 quality management in that both pertain to the process of how a product is produced, rather than to the product itself. As with ISO 9000, certification is performed by third-party organizations rather than being awarded by ISO directly. The ISO 19011 audit standard applies when auditing for both 9000 and 14000 compliance at once. The ISO 14000 family includes most notably the ISO 14001 standard, which represents the core set of standards used by organizations for designing and implementing an effective environmental management system. Other standards included in this series are ISO 14004, which gives additional guidelines for a good environmental management system, and more specialized standards dealing with specific aspects of environmental management. The major objective of the ISO 14000 series of norms is "to promote more effective and efficient environmental management in organizations and to provide useful and usable tools - ones that are cost effective, system-based, and flexible and reflect the best organizations and the best organizational practices available for gathering, interpreting and communicating environmentally relevant information

Quality standard (9000) The ISO 9000 family of standards relate to quality management systems and are designed to help organizations ensure they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders. The standards are published by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization and available through National standards bodies. ISO 9000 deals with the fundamentals of quality management systems, including the eight management principles on which the family of standards is based. ISO 9001 deals with the requirements that organizations wishing to meet the standard have to fulfill. Third party certification bodies provide independent confirmation that organizations meet the requirements of ISO 9001. Over a million organizations worldwide are independently certified, making ISO 9001 one of the most widely used management tools in the world today. Despite widespread use, however, the ISO certification process has been criticized as being wasteful, and not being useful for all organizations.

ISO membership types:

There are three types of ISO members Member bodies: A member body of ISO is the national body most representative of standardization in its country. Only one such body for each country is accepted for membership of ISO. Member bodies are entitled to participate and exercise full voting rights on any technical committee and policy committee of ISO. Correspondent members: A correspondent member is a usually an organization in a country which does not yet have a fully-developed national standard activity. Correspondent members do not take an active part in the technical and policy development work, but are entitled to be kept fully informed about the work of interest to them. Subscriber members: Subscriber membership has been established for the countries having very small economies. Subscriber members pay reduced subscription fees that nevertheless allow them to maintain contact with international standardization. * Pakistan has member body.

Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority:

In Pakistan ISO is working with the name of PSQCA. The Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority, under the Ministry of Science and Technology, is the national standardization body. In performing its duties and functions, PSQCA is governed by the PSQCA Act, 1996. PSQCA came into operation since 1st December 2000, working with 81 scientists/engineers and 254 supporting staff as self-finance organization, been given the task of not only formulation of Pakistan Standards, but is also responsible for promulgation thereof. PSQCA is a member of International Organization for Standardization (ISO), International Electro-technical Commission (IEC), and International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML). PSQCA has also been established to advise the Government on standardization policies, programmes and activities to promote industrial efficiency and development, as well as for consumer protection. The main function of the Department is to foster and promote standards and conformity assessment as a means of advancing the national economy, promoting industrial efficiency and development, ensuring the health and safety of the public, protecting the consumers, facilitating domestic and international trade and furthering international co-operation in relation to standards and conformity assessment

Procedure of Certification:
To get certification from ISO you must need to: Decide what it is that you are looking to get out of your new ISO quality system. Prepare your documentation in accordance with ISO quality standards and also in accordance with your companys quality goals. Train your staff according to ISO standard certification requirements. Get the certification audit. Get certification.