International Organization For Standardization:
ISO is a global network that recognizes which international standard will be required by business, society, government, develops them and adopts them by the use of transparent procedure in order to be implemented worldwide. It is a federation of national standard bodies amongst various countries, one per country.
International Standards
According to ISO/IEC Guide 2:2004 Standardization and related activities – General vocabulary, standard is a document established by consensus and approved by a recognized body that provides for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context.
Conformity Assessment
The process of demonstrating the essential features about a product or services, which meet the requirement of standards, regulations and other specification, is called conformity assessment. A variety of PROCESSES involved in verifying that goods/services meet acceptable voluntary or mandatory standards such as Testing , Surveillance, Inspection, Assessment, Auditing, Certification and Registration.
Objectives of Conformity Assessment are to:
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) states “ISO itself has no authority to control conformity assessment activities, whether these are business activities by its members or by other organizations”. Further, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) states that private sector organizations may perform conformity assessment services as a commercial activity or regulatory bodies under a mandate may perform these services when ISO standards have been incorporated into public legislation, the aim of which is to create confidence among suppliers and their clients.
Accreditation
Webster defines accreditation as “to give trust or confidence to: to vouch for; to recommend; to furnish with credentials, as an envoy or ambassador”.
According to ISO/IEC 17011:2004 Accreditation means: Third–party attestation related to a conformity assessment body conveying formal demonstration of its competence to carry out specific assessment tasks.
It is a formal recognition by an independent body, generally known as an accreditation body, certifies Conformity Assessment Body to be capable and competent. Accreditation is not obligatory but it adds another level of confidence, as ‘accredited’ means the Conformity Assessment Body has been independently checked to make sure it operates according to international standards.
As per International Organization For Standardization (ISO) Accreditation is not compulsory, and non-accreditation does not necessarily mean it is not reputable, but it does provide independent confirmation of competence.
QAB-CAB accreditation Board for Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) normallyt called CB or Certifying Body. QAB-CAB conveys formal demonstration to carry out specific certification, inspection, registration verification/validation, assessment, testing and calibration. This independent assessment and recognition of Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) may allow the accredited organizations tests, inspection reports and certificates to be recognized as equivalent to organizations in other countries.
Benefits of Accreditation:
The Story of ISO:
The ISO story began in 1946 when delegates from 25 countries met at the Institute of Civil Engineers in London and decided to create a new international organization ‘to facilitate the international coordination and unification of industrial standards’.On 23 February 1947 the new organization, ISO, officially began operations.
To find out more about the history of ISO, see our timeline.
It’s all in the name
Because ‘International Organization for Standardization’ would have different acronyms in different languages (IOS in English, OIN in French for Organisation internationale de normalisation), our founders decided to give it the short form ISO. ISO is derived from the Greek isos, meaning equal. Whatever the country, whatever the language, we are always ISO.
How does ISO develop standards?
A panel of experts, within a technical committee, develops an ISO standard. Once the need for a standard has been established, these experts meet to discuss and negotiate a draft standard. As soon as a draft has been developed it is shared with ISO’s members who are asked to comment and vote on it. If a consensus is reached the draft becomes an ISO standard, if not it goes back to the technical committee for further edits.
Key principles in standard development