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What had laid the foundation for the growth of the output of ISO during the seventies was the turn in emphasis from national to International Standards which took place in the late 1960s.

This change of emphasis was underlined by the decision in 1971 to begin publishing the results of ISO’s technical work as International Standards rather then Recommendations.

Quality management standards

The vast majority of ISO’s International Standards were highly specific to a particular product, material, or process. However, during the 1980s, ISO entered into new areas of work, destined to have enormous impact on organizational practices and trade.

The history of industrialization has seen many standards dealing with quality issues.

A famous example concerns the military field: during the two world wars, a high percentage of bullets and bombs went off in the factories themselves in the course of manufacturing. In an effort to curb such causalities, the United Kingdom’s ministry of defense appointed inspectors in the factories to supervise the production process.

In the USA, quality standards for military procurement were introduced at the end of the 1950s. During the 1960s, NASA developed its quality system requirements for suppliers and NATO accepted the AQAP (allied quality assurance procedures) specifications for the procurement of equipment.

In the 1970s, many major organizations (private and governmental) published their own quality management standards, which introduced the idea that confidence in a product could be gained from an approved quality management system and quality manuals. The Canadian CSA Z 299 series of standards were issued in the mid-1970s and the British standard BS 5750 was issued in 1979. In December 1979, the USA issued ANSI/ASQC Z-1.15, Generic Guidelines for quality systems.

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Whilst the increase in international trade stimulated the development of internationally-recognized quality management standards, it was feared that a variety of different national standards would be a barrier to international trade.

The ISO technical committee (TC) 176, Quality management and quality assurance, was therefore established in 1979. The first standard issued by ISO/TC 176 was ISO 8402 (in 1986), which standardized quality management terminology. It was followed in 1987 by ISO 9001, ISO 9002 and ISO 9003, which provided the requirements for quality management systems operated by organizations with varying scopes of activity, from those including an R&D function, to those uniquely carrying out service and maintenance., These standards were completed by ISO 9004, providing guidance on quality management systems..

This accomplishment marked the beginning of a long journey - with the ISO 9000 family of standards set to become the most widely known standards ever.

Environmental management and other management and leadership standards.

ISO's portfolio of generic management systems standards was extended beyond quality during the 1990s.

In particular, the establishment of the ISO technical committee ISO/TC 207, Environmental management, was the result of a sequence of activities, leading to a coordinated world response to common environmental challenges.

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Earth Summit, was a major conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3-14 June 1992, attended by 110 heads of State and a total of 172 governments. Some 2 400 representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) attended, with 17 000 people at the parallel NGO Forum who had socalled "consultative status".

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UNCED issued the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, a set of principles for achieving sustainable development, along with Agenda 21, a comprehensive policy guidance document, and a number of agreements - including the Framework Convention on Climate Change which in turn led to the Kyoto Protocol.

Environmental concerns were not new in ISO. For example, ISO technical committees developing standards for air and water quality were established in 1971.

However, the focus on environmental standards intensified in the preparatory period leading up to the 1992 Earth Summit, in which ISO and its partner IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) became directly involved. UNCED wanted to ensure that business was fully engaged in the process. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) was established as a result of these efforts. This WBCSD approached the two international standards organizations to see what they were doing in the area of environmental management and to encourage them to become more active.

This request from WBCSD came at a time when work was already in progress within the ISO/IEC Presidents' Advisory Board on Technical Trends and other instances of the two organizations. As a result, in August 1991, ISO and IEC formally established the Strategic Advisory Group on the Environment (SAGE) to study the situation and make recommendations.

The SAGE process had two major end products:

a series of ISO/IEC recommendations on environmental management, which were submitted to the UNCED preparatory conference in January 1992; and in October 1992, a recommendation to create a new ISO technical committee to develop standards in the area of environmental management.

The recommendations to UNCED became a key element of the major documents that came out of that conference, Agenda 21, and the Rio Declaration.

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The recommendation to ISO and IEC led to the creation in 1993 of ISO/TC 207, Environmental management, which held its inaugural plenary session in Toronto in June of 1993. Its first standard, ISO 14001, Environmental management systems - Specification with guidance for use was published in 1996, then updated in 2000 and 2004.

The tremendous impact of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 on organizational practices and on trade has stimulated the development of other ISO standards and deliverables that adapt the generic management system to specific sectors or aspects.

·Automotive.

·Customer satisfaction.

·Energy.

·Food safety.

·Information security.

·Supply chain security.

·Medical devices.

·Local government.

·Education.

·Risk.

·Ship recycling.

And, more recently ISO's management standards was joined by ISO 26000:2010, which gives guidance on social responsibility. It does not follow the management system model and is not a certification standard. Therefore, any claim by an organization to be certified to ISO 26000 is false and organizations should beware of any offers to certify them to the standard.

ISO Standards

When products, systems, machinery and devices work well and safely, it is often because they meet standards. And the organization responsible for many thousands of standards is ISO (International Organization for Standardization).

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ISO standards are developed by technical committees comprising experts from the industrial, technical and business sectors. These experts may be joined by the representatives of government agencies, testing laboratories, consumer associations, nongovernmental organizations and academic circles.

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, 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 favour, 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 published as an International Standard.

Every working day of the year ISO technical meetings take place round 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.

Standardization refers to the creation and use of guidelines for the production of uniform, interchangeable components, especially for use in mass production. It also refers to the establishment and adoption of guidelines for conduct. In global marketing, the term is used to describe the simplification of procurement and production to achieve economy.

The concept of standardization originated near the turn of the 19th century. Before that time, products were made individually, with unique, hand-fitted parts. Eli Whitney (1765-1825), inventor of the cotton gin, has been credited with developing the concept of standardization, which he first applied to rifle manufacture in 1797. Instead of handcrafting each weapon, he produced components of uniform size in quantity, then assembled the parts into finished

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products. The concept saved time and money in production, and allowed for easy repair.

By the mid-1800s standardization joined the division of labor and machine-assisted manufacturing as well-established principles of mass production, but they were not widely applied for decades to come. Twentieth century industrialist Henry Ford (1863-1947) was a great proponent and beneficiary of mass production. He organized the Ford Motor Co. around its principles, taking standardization to a high level. His plants manufactured only one type of car at a time. Each auto that came off the production lines was identical, even down to the color — black. Standardization not only saved on production costs, but also benefited consumers, who no longer had to have replacement parts machined by hand.

Ford's success contributed to the proliferation of massproduction principles, including standardization, throughout the developed world. The concept has promoted a dramatic increase in manufacturing productivity, which in turn improved living standards. The concept of standardization has been applied in many ways since.

In general, standardization determines and promulgates criteria to which objects or actions are expected to conform. Standardization for manufacturing may entail the creation of production standards, tolerances, and/or specifications. These can be expressed as formulas, drawings, measurements, or definitions. Standards delineate the limits within which products or components must fall in order to be useful and interchangeable. Components that do not adhere to such limits are "nonstandard" or, more commonly, "rejects." Virtually any aspect of a product or component can be standardized. Quality control and testing are used to measure achievement of standards. The use of such standards promotes clear communication within and among organizations. It can also lower the costs of labor, production, and repair. In the current business climate, businesses have demanded ever-increasing standardization from their suppliers as well as from their own production.

Individual industries may have distinct sets of standards that promote communication among participants and discourage

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duplication of effort. George Westinghouse (1846-1914), inventor of the air brake and founder of Westinghouse, was an early advocate of the standardization of railway equipment. In the world of scientific inquiry, for example, the metric system is the standard of measurement. In the American construction industry, architects, suppliers, and builders have established standards for prefabricated buildings and construction components.

Organizations and professions may also be held up to standards of practice or conduct, such as safety and ethical standards. For example, government agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission set and enforce safety standards in their respective fields. The Hippocratic oath is a well-known ethical standard that physicians follow.

National and international organizations have also evolved to synthesize the diverse standardization efforts of the individual groups and promote acceptance of and adherence to basic standards. In the United States, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has taken up this cause. Although this organization does not normally compose standards, it does compile national engineering, safety, and industrial standards. ANSI diverged from its traditional role in 1998 by collaborating with the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society to establish national ergonomic standards for video display terminal workstations. In September 1998 ANSI also established an interactive website containing national and international standards and related information, and outlining U.S. participation in the International Organization of Standardization (ISO). Since its 1946 establishment in Geneva, Switzerland, the ISO has emerged as a powerful advocate of global standards for specifications, testing, approval, and certification. More than 80 nations are counted among its membership. Companies large and small strive for certification by the ISO, which has helped provide a basis of comparison and cooperation among companies around the world, especially as global trade has become increasingly vital to success. The standards set by such organizations often evolve with technological innovation.

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The ISO issued its ISO 9000 series of standards and guidelines governing quality management and assurance in 1987, and issued its ISO 14000 series of standards for environmental management, policies, tools, and systems in 1998. Sets of voluntary standards such as these are known as metastandards, and provide universal guidelines and models for entire industries, groups of industries, and other areas of activity. Metastandards are also often used by public agencies forming industrial, professional, environmental, and technical regulations. Many industrial organizations, particularly those representing manufacturers of high technology products, feel that metastandards are irrelevant to their field, given the rapid pace of technical innovation. In 1998, as a response to this sentiment, the Council for Economic Priorities Accreditation Agency (CEPAA) formulated its own set of standards and registrations for use by hightechnology industries.

Globalization of business has brought about new definitions and uses of standardization. As companies have begun to compete on a global scale, they have sought out "standardized" suppliers—those that offer the most economical, convenient, and dependable service. Thus, adherence to the standards promulgated by ANSI, ISO, and other national and international standards organizations can assist corporations wishing to do business globally. Ford Motor Co., an early proponent of standardization for mass production, has been praised for its successful use of standardization as it applies to global manufacturing and marketing.

Although standardization tends to lead to inflexibility, it can also allow for customization. When basic elements of a product are standardized, other aspects can be more flexible. For example, autos on an assembly line may use the same standard of wheel attachment, but different size wheels. Micromanagement takes this theory to its ultimate end. This theory attempts to apply standardization to all aspects of an operation, be it manufacturing or service. It seeks to identify the smallest aspects of a function, make them as efficient as possible, and then apply them throughout the operation. Clearly, standardization in all its forms will continue to be applied in new ways in the future.

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Popular standards

ISO 9000 - Quality management

The ISO 9000 family addresses various aspects of quality management and contains some of ISO’s best known standards. The standards provide guidance and tools for companies and organizations who want to ensure that their products and services consistently meet customer’s requirements, and that quality is consistently improved.

There are many standards in the ISO 9000 family, including:

·ISO 9001:2008 – sets out the requirements of a quality management system.

·ISO 9000:2005 – covers the basic concepts and language

·ISO 9004:2009 – focuses on how to make a quality management system more efficient and effective.

·ISO 19011:2011 – sets out guidance on internal and external audits of quality management systems.

ISO 14000 - Environmental management

The ISO 14000 family addresses various aspects of environmental management. It provides practical tools for companies and organizations looking to identify and control their environmental impact and constantly improve their environmental performance. ISO 14001:2004 and ISO 14004:2004 focus on environmental management systems. The other standards in the family focus on specific environmental aspects such as life cycle analysis, communication and auditing.

·ISO 14001:2004, Environmental management systems – Requirements with guidance for use.

·ISO 14004:2004, Environmental management systems – General guidelines on principles, systems and support techniques.

·ISO 14064-1:2006, Greenhouse gases – Part 1: Specification with guidance at the organization level for quantification

and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals.

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· ISO 14006:2011, Environmental management systems – Guidelines for incorporating ecodesign.

Country Codes - ISO 3166

ISO 3166 is the International Standard for country codes and codes for their subdivisions. The purpose of ISO 3166 is to establish internationally recognized codes for the representation of names of countries, territories or areas of geographical interest, and their subdivisions. However, ISO 3166 does not establish the names of countries, only the codes that represent them.

The country names in ISO 3166 come from United Nations sources. New names and codes are added automatically when the United Nations publishes new names in either the Terminology Bulletin Country Names or in the Country and Region Codes for Statistical Use maintained by the United Nations Statistics Divisions. Names for subdivisions are taken from relevant official national information sources.

ISO 3166 was first published in 1974 as a single standard to establish the country codes. It was expanded into three parts in 1997 to include the codes for subdivisions and the codes for names of countries that are no longer in use. Of the three parts, Part 1, ISO 3166-1 is generally used the most often.

ISO 26000 - Social responsibility

Business and organizations do not operate in a vacuum. Their relationship to the society and environment in which they operate is a critical factor in their ability to continue to operate effectively. It is also increasingly being used as a measure of their overall performance.

ISO 26000 provides guidance on how businesses and organizations can operate in a socially responsible way. This means acting in an ethical and transparent way that contributes to the health and welfare of society.

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