Categories: Technical

What does ISO mean?

In an international market, checks and balances need to be in the right place. Otherwise, it would be difficult to maintain consistency and quality across Industries and the Nations. To maintain an international standard, help to keep a level up, and one such organization is ISO. In this article, we are trying to know, what does ISO mean?

ISO stands for “International Organization for Standardization”, it is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies. ISO is an independent, non-governmental, international organization that covers standards bodies from more than 165 countries, with one standards body representing each member country.

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What does ISO mean?

“International Organization for Standardization” would have different abbreviations in different languages (for example, IOS in English, OIN in French for Organisation Internationale de normalisation). The founders decided to give it the short form ISO. ISO is originated from the Greek word ‘isos’, which mean “Equal.” Regardless of the country, the language, we are always ISO.

ISO is a certification process that checks and certifies the management system, manufacturing process, service, or documentation procedure if complied all required procedures to maintain the standard and quality. ISO develops standards to ensure the quality, security, safety, and productivity of products, services, and systems.

ISO certifications exist in several areas of industry, from energy management to medical devices and to sports good industry. ISO standards are in place to ensure consistency. Each industry certification has separate standards and criteria and to classified with a specific numeric digit.

If an organization, group, industry, company and association is “ISO 9001 Certified,” it means that the organization has fulfilled the requirements entitled under ISO 9001 (which we will explain later in this article). ISO 9001 requires organizations to define and follow a quality management system that is both appropriate and effective while also requiring them to identify areas for improvement and take action toward those improvements.

As a result, it’s typically understood that an organization claiming ISO 9001 certification is an organization with products and services that meet quality standards.

Types of ISO Membership

Full members (or member bodies) can sell and adopt ISO International Standards nationally. They influence ISO standards development and strategy by contributing and cast their vote in ISO technical and policy meetings.

Correspondent members monitor the development of ISO standards and strategy by attending ISO technical and policy meetings as an observer. Correspondent members are national bodies that sell and adopt ISO International Standards nationally. Correspondent members in the territories that are not national entities sell ISO International Standards within their territory.

Subscriber members keep up to date on ISO’s work but cannot participate in it. They do not sell or adopt ISO International Standards nationally.

Learn more about ISO membership and its benefits in the ISO Membership Manual.

ISO 9001 Certification

There are three components in the certification ISO 9001. These are ISO, 9001, and 2015. Each component is different from the other.

ISO

ISO stands for “International Organization for Standardization.” The ISO organization develops the standards, to certify businesses and organizations. The process of certification is handled by a third party and tested on yearly basis.

9001

The number mentioning after ISO categories the standard. All standards within the ISO 9000 family refer to quality management, whereas ISO 9001 family refers to best-known standards. It describes the standards for meeting many quality management principles. It helps businesses and organizations to be more efficient and improve the level of customer satisfaction.

2015

This is the final number in an ISO certification, which refers to the version of the standard being met and the calendar year those standards were launched. 2015 is the fifth edition of ISO 9001 and as the number shows, it was launched in September 2015.

Most Popular ISO Standards

In this section, you can discover some of the best-known and most widely-used standards, as well as those that address recently emerged challenges affecting all in a global marketplace.

ISO 9000 Family – Quality Management

ISO 9001 sets out benchmarks for a quality management system and it is the only standard in the family that can be certified to. It can be used by any organization, large, medium or small, irrespective of its field of activity. Actually, more than a million companies and organizations in over 170 countries are already certified with ISO 9001.

Using ISO 9001 helps and ensure customers consistency, good-quality products and services, which brings several business benefits in the longer run.

ISO/IEC 27001 – Information Security Management

Organizations can rely on the ISO/IEC 27000 family when it comes to secure information assets.

ISO/IEC 27001 is extensively popular for providing requirements for an information security management system (ISMS). However, there are more than 12 standards in the ISO/IEC 27000 family. It enables organizations to manage assets’ security, including financial information, intellectual property, employee details, or information entrusted by third parties.

ISO 45000 – Occupational Health and Safety

Organizations that are seriously considered about improving employee health and safety, want to reduce risk at the workplace and give security to their manpower. The ISO 45001 family is for them.

As per the International Labour Organization, more than 7,600 people die at their workplace, work-related accidents or diseases every single day. So, the ISO committee for Occupational Health & Safety experts comes up with a certificate to develop an International Standard with the potential to save almost 3 million lives every year.

The structure is the same as the other ISO management systems have, the approach will be familiar to users of standards such as ISO 14001 or ISO 9001. ISO 45001 builds on the success of earlier international standards in this area such as OHSAS 18001, the International Labour Organization’s ILO-OSH Guidelines, various national standards and the ILO’s international labour standards and conventions.