ISO - International Organization For Standardization

ISO is the world's largest developer and publisher of international standards. It was formed in 1947 in Geneva. It is a national standard body of 143 countries. It is a non-government organization, and its objective is to increase quality awareness and total quality improvement.

Why ISO certification is required:

1. If your product is ISO marked or your company has an ISO mark, then it is proved that you are providing standard services to your customers or users.
2. If the product has an ISO mark, then the customers will have confidence that the product they are using is good and beneficial for them.

Registration process:

The steps to get an ISO certificate are as under:

Step 1: New standard is proposed to the relevant technical committee. Then, the further steps happen if the proposal is accepted; otherwise, the registration process willstop here.

Step 2: Working group of experts start the discussion to prepare a working draft.

Step 3: First working draft shared with the technical committee and with ISO central secretariat.

Step 4: If consensus is reached within the technical committee, then draft shared with all ISO national members who are asked to comment.

Step 5: If consensus is reached then the final draft is sent to all ISO members.

Step 6: If standards are approved by member vote, then it is included in ISO international standard.

The registration process for the organization:

Step 1: Select the ISO standard as per your business need.

Step 2: Prepare the documents for ISO standards.

Step 3: Select the certification body from where you want to obtain the certificate.

Step 4: Fill the application form of the certification body.

Step 5: ISO auditors verify the documents provided by users.

Step 6: If the documents are correct, then the registrar will observe the important quality operations.

Step 7: If the quality is up to the mark, then the ISO inspector does a physical inspection by visiting the organization.

Step 8: The inspector is satisfied if the organization follows all standards and the organization is following the quality process. If the inspector satisfies after visiting the organization, then the organization gets ISO certification.

Two main features of ISO:

1. Internal quality audit at predetermined intervals.
2. Continuous monitoring of the quality of the system.

Standards of ISO:

There are many standards of ISO available for every type of product, business, and industry.

1. ISO 9000:

ISO 9000 is a family of standards deals with quality management systems, including quality management principles. It was published in 1987.

2. ISO 9001:2015:

This standard is a quality management standard. The standard is useful for merchant exporters, manufacturers, training centre, and service providers. If you have this ISO standard, it means your management is at the top-level or international level. It was published in 2015.

3. ISO 22000:

This standard is for food safety. This is a very important standard that is useful for food manufacturing units, food supplier units, and restaurants. It was published in 2005.

4. ISO 14001:

This standard is for environmental protection. The standard takes care of the environment. If an organization or company has this standard, it means the organization is following all rules and regulations of the environment. It was published in 2015.

5. ISO 27000:

This standard is for information technology. This standard is useful for the IT industry. Guidelines for improving the performance of the IT industry, the best system for the IT industry, stress reduction techniques for the people who work in the industry; all these things are defined in this standard. By following the defined rules, the IT industry can get ISO certification. The quality of ISO marked products is checked so that there are no bugs in it.

6. ISO / TS 16949:

This standard is for the automobile industry. Safety major, the production process for the automobile industry, and the training process of workers; all these things are included in this standard. It was published in October 2016.

7. ISO 50001:

This is an energy standard. The company can achieve this standard by saving energy and using energy in the best way. It was published in 2011, and its second edition was published in 2018.

8. ISO 13485:

This standard is for medical equipment and is useful for medical equipment manufacturing companies. It was published in 1996, its second edition was published in 2003, and its third edition was published in 2016.

9. ISO 31000:

This standard is for risk management. The standard is useful for minimizing manufacturer risk, accidental risk, and organizational risk. It was published in 2009.

10. ISO 26000:

This standard is very important for employees and labour. This standard is for social responsibility. It includes improving labour policies, ethical behaviour, human rights & consumer issues, etc.

11. ISO 14000:

It is a set of rules and standards that help companies to reduce industrial waste and environmental damage. It is used for environmental management. The revised version of this standard is 14001:2015which was published in 2015.