ISO STANDARDS

Standards Introduction

ISO 9001 may be the most successful standard with over 1,000,000 Companies worldwide now registered, but there are hundreds of other Standards. They can be divided into Management System or Product/Service Standards

Management Systems

The main groups of Standards relate to Quality, Environment and Security.

Health and Safety is often grouped together with Quality and Environmental Systems into what is called a fully “integrated” system but there is no international Standard for Health and Safety because legal and regulatory requirements vary significantly because legal and regulatory requirements vary significantly between countries. However in the UK British Standards have recently published BS OHSAS 18001

Update to Standards

Based upon use and experience, ISO Standards are routinely revised and updated. For Management System ISO's, this has been at the frequency of 5 to 8 years or so. Updates have generally been about changing the requirements (because of external developments), the emphasis and harmonisation.

For instance ISO 9001 has been updated in 1994, 2000 and 2008.

Scope of ISO

ISO has developed over 16500 International Standards on a variety of subjects and 1250 new ISO standards are published every year.

What makes ISO 9001 & ISO 14001 so important?

The ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 families are among ISO's most widely known and successful standards ever. ISO 9000 has become an international reference for quality requirements in business to business dealings, and ISO 14000 looks set to achieve at least as much, if not more, in helping organisations to meet their environmental challenges.

The vast majority of ISO standards are highly specific to a particular product, material, or process. However, the standards that have earned the ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 families a worldwide reputation are known as "generic management system standards". "Generic" means that the same standards can be applied to any organisation, large or small, whatever its product - including whether its "product" is actually a service - in any sector of activity, and whether it is a business enterprise, a public administration, or a government department. "Management system" refers to what the organisation does to manage its processes, or activities. "Generic" also signifies that no matter what the organisation is or does, if it wants to establish a quality management system or an environmental management system, then such a system has a number of essential features which are spelled out in the relevant standards of the ISO 9000 or ISO 14000 families.

ISO 9000 is concerned with "quality management". This means what the organisation does to enhance customer satisfaction by meeting customer and applicable regulatory requirements and continually to improve its performance in this regard. ISO 14000 is primarily concerned with "environmental management". This means what the organisation does to minimise harmful effects on the environment caused by its activities, and continually to improve its environmental performance.