About ISO Certification

The International Organization for Standardization, commonly referred to as ISO, is an international consortium that has joined together to develop and publish standard operating procedures and quality standards for goods and services of their member organizations. The organization is not affiliated with any nation's government but does offer standardization procedures for both the public and private sectors. Becoming ISO certified is a major step in allowing companies to confidently compete in a global economic community.

Benefits

The International Organization for Standardization takes its nickname, ISO, from the Greek word, isos, which means "equal." The concept behind the organization was to create standards that would be the same for products, services and operating procedures throughout the global marketplace. This would provide consumers, businesses and governmental entities the assurance that an ISO-certified item would be produced to the same standards in one part of the world as another.

Geography

ISO is comprised of representatives from the national standardization organizations of 161 countries. Each national organization provides one member to the international organization. The international organization maintains a central office, referred to as the Central Secretariat, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Function

ISO takes into consideration three primary factors when developing standards for a particular industry. First, the organization seeks a consensus from all interested parties. Viewpoints are gathered from manufacturing companies, researchers, consumers, sales forces, governmental and regulatory agencies and others with a vested interest in order to form a consensus. Next, the organization applies standardization concepts to a global marketplace worldview to ensure they can be applied industry wide. Finally, ISO recognizes that because the world economy is market driven, all of its standardization procedures must be voluntary.

Size

There are more than 17,700 International Standards published by ISO. The primary languages in which ISO publishes these standards is English and French, although these are not the exclusive languages of the organization.

Time Frame

ISO was established in 1947. The organization publishes standards in such fields as agriculture, construction, engineering, manufacturing, communication and many others, with new standards continually being created on a needs-based agenda. It typically takes an average of 2.7 years for ISO to develop and publish a new standard.

Resources

• ISO Media Kit