The International Organization for Standartization - Essay Example

?Running Head: ISO (INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR STANDARDIZATION) Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts ’s Name Date: ISO The products and services being manufactured and sold these days are all required to be of the international standards. They are endorsed by the company operating in the international standards and need to depict the highest of the quality and standards to the consumers. ISO is one such organization which recognizes the products, services and institutions for the various levels of quality and standards. This paper shall elaborate upon ISO with respect to its background, history and operations. ISO- International Organization for Standardization The International Organization for Standardization, generally recognized as ISO, is a standard-setting body which operates on international level. The organization comprises of the legislative body from different national standards organizations. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) came into being on February 23, 1947 and is responsible for the promulgation of the global industrial, proprietary, and commercial values. The company has its headquarters in the city of Geneva in Switzerland. About ISO The International Organization of Standardization (ISO) is the largest developer and publisher of the International Standards in the world. The organization is the arrangement of institutes of national standard-leading 163 countries, involving one member from each country and a coordinating system known as Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland. ISO is an NGO which establishes a connection between the private and public sectors. Most of the members of organization are the segment of the governmental structure or are commanded and directed by the governments of their country. Likewise, there are members in the organization who bear roots in the private sector which is established by the national partnerships of industry associations (ISO, 2012). The organization was formally established in 1926 under the title of International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations (ISA). The major focus of this organization was centered heavily on the mechanical engineering. Later, the organization got split up during the Second World War in 1942. However, it got re-organized with the present name, ISO, during the year 1946. The International Organization of standardization is a non-governmental organization which possesses the members who are acknowledged authorities on the international standards. There are technical sub committees, working groups, and committees, a total of 2700, which control most of the work at ISO. There is one of the member organizations which head the Secretariat at the International Organization of Standardization. Strategy and Policy Documents The basic aim of the ISO standards is to contribute positively to the world we live in. the organization aides spreading of knowledge, trade, dissemination of the innovation in modern technology, and share the conformity assessment practices and good techniques of management. The International Organization of Standardization accomplishes benefits and provides solutions for almost all the activity and production sectors including construction, agricultures, manufacturing, mechanical engineering, transport, distribution, communication and information technologies, medical devices, quality management, energy, and other assessment and conformity services to the organizations and consumers across the world. The company develops and establishes only those standards which bear a strong market requirement. There are experts and practitioners in the subject who execute this task and these gurus are extracted from the technical, business and industrial sectors directly and have properly identified the requirements for maintaining and sustaining standards, and have a proper know-how to implement nad utilize these standards. The other publics with concerned knowledge and information might join these experts. These ‘others’ include the academia, consumer associations, representatives of the government agencies and the nongovernmental and international governmental organizations (ISO, 2011). Operations There are brief processes which help develop the standards of ISO. These processes comprise of various stages which are pre-determined to produce a consensus which is industry-wide. The International Organization of Standardization involves the processes that are multi-stakeholders and engage the science, industry, consumer, academia, and governments. Regarding the standards, the organization help producing the deliverables which include Guides, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS), Technical Reports (TR) Technical Specifications (TS) and International Workshop Agreements (IWA). The ISO/IEC Directives and ISO supplement define the procedures for the development of ISO standards. It contains three basic documents which give a precise description of the fundamental drafting and procedural regulations which are to be complied by the committees working at ISO. Governance and Technical Works The general management of the Technical Management Board (TMB) conducts the entire technical work of ISO. This Technical Board is accountable to the ISO Council and the statutes and laws define its role and responsibility in the organizational laws. In particular, the board has been assigned the tasks of setting up different technical committees and is charged with the responsibility of monitoring and chairing the progress of the undergoing technical work. The Board is also assigned the responsibility of issuing the directives, which command the developmental rules for the international standards tackle, and handle all the matters including the coordination, strategic planning, monitoring and performance of the activities of technical committees. Code of Ethics The International organization of Standardization follows certain ethical guidelines and codes of conduct. The company follows consensus-based and transparent practices, which depend on the role of the related specialists and stakeholders. The organization facilitates the customers with the practical and pragmatic state-of-art solutions for the spread of innovation and technology, assisting trade, building up efficient and more effective practices, protecting the environments and guaranteeing the quality of business’ services and products. Thus, the international organization of standardization is organized and committed to successfully meet the modern-day challenges of the 21st century. The members of ISO are dedicated to the development of relevant international standards worldwide by guaranteeing the openness, transparency, standardization and impartiality. It adopts suitable and effective measures to encourage the consumer participation and the contributions of SMEs, civil societies and public authorities. The organization is also devoted to the promotion of the execution of international standards and related good compliance evaluation practices. The implementation of international standards is supported by the sustainable development, and reduction in trade barriers. The members of International Organization of Standardization contribute towards the maintenance cost of the ISO’s infrastructure, accept, and comply with all the terms and conditions issue by the Council when distributing or reproducing the publications of ISO safeguarded by the copyrights. The company guarantees and takes all measures to assure the proper utilization of the name, logo and mark of ISO. The ISO parties assist the members of ISO belonging to the developing countries to enhance their participation and capacity in the standardization of international levels. Certification Any of the management system standards of ISO does not demand the certification. With reference to the ISO 14001:2004 or ISO 9001:2000, and ISO 9001:2008, the process of certification pertains to the giving out of a written guarantee (or the certificate), which is provided by an autonomous external body. It refers to the concept that the management system has been audited and established in conformity to the requirements given out in a certain standard. In this process, the registration is synonymous to the recording to of certification by the auditing body in its client register. This suggests that the management system of the organization has been both registered and certified. Thus, in the context of ISO 14001:2004 or 9001:2000, and ISO 9001:2008, the variation between both the terms is not important and both are utilized interchangeably. On the other hand, utilizing the terms like “accreditation” for the purpose of substituting the terms for ‘registration’ or ‘certification’ would be wrong for the reason that it refers to something entirely different. Management and leadership standards The standards of ISO give guidance, provide the requirements on the best management practices, and are acknowledged in the offerings of ISO best known amongst the public. There are many, but not all, who are replicated on the structure of the management system of ISO 14001 and 9001. Adding to this, the standards of managements are classified into the certifications such as ISO 14001 and ISO 9001. Moreover, there are those too which cannot be certified, and do not have the standards of requirement, however, they aim upon providing guidance such as ISO 31000 and ISO 26000 (ISO, 2012). The management system of an organization refers to the ways and means that the organizations adopt to manage its activities and processes in order to enable its services and products meet the goals and objectives that the organizational has set for it. These could possible include: Satisfying the quality requirements and needs of the customers, Adhering to the laws and regulations, and Meeting the environmental objectives. The management system standards of the organization facilitate it with a model and framework to comply in establishing and operating a sophisticated system of management. This model encompasses the elements regarding which the practitioners in the field of quality management have agreed unanimously to it being the international state of the art. The International Organization of Standardization follows the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, which formulates the principles of the ISO’s operations in its standards of management systems as follows: Figure: Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle The organization follows this cycle as the basis to its management standards system. ISO follows the steps in the manner described below: Plan- it makes plans and formulates the objectives that it wants to achieve. The organization analyzes its current situation, sets up the general objectives and the provisional targets, and then develops plans to accomplish those targeted objectives. Do- ISO executes its targeted objectives that it had planned to achieve. Check- the organization evaluates and measures its results regarding the extent to which the actual achievement correspond the planned goals. Act- This step inculcates the improvements and correction of the formulated plans and of the means and ways that were used to make those plans practical. The deviations are corrected and better plans are established to be implemented next time. The International Organization of Standardization owns and implements the generic system of management standards. In organizational context, the generic standards pertain to the similar standards which can be easily implemented in any of the business organizations, irrespective of the scale or nature of business activity, or the sector of the activity. ISO 26000-Social Responsibility The business organizations all across the globe, along with their stakeholders, are becoming more and more familiar with the benefits and needs of the behavior which is socially acceptable and responsible. The basic objective of the social responsibility is to facilitate the sustainable development of the businesses and organizations. For this purpose, the ISO 26000 facilitates the organizations with all sort of guidance irrespective of their locations, size or the nature of activities. They are given guidance regarding: Terms, concepts nad definitions relevant to the social responsibility, Trends, fundamentals and features of the social responsibility, Practices and principles relevant to the social responsibility, Fundamental issues, subjects nad challenges of the social responsibility, Implementation, integration and fostering of the socially responsible behavior within the organization, in its practices and policies, and with the sphere of its influences, Engagement and identification of the stakeholders, Communication of the performance, commitments and other information relevant to the social responsibility. The ISO 26000 is formed with the basic purpose of helping organization contribute to the sustainable development of their businesses. The document encourages them to move ahead of the legal adherences and acknowledge that it is the major duty of businesses to comply with the law and is also one of the necessary parts of the social responsibility. The document also fosters general understanding within the scope of social responsibility in order to balance other initiatives and devices of the social responsibility instead of replacing them. For the purpose of applying for and implementing ISO 26000, it is recommended that the business organization considers environmental, societal, cultural, organizational and political diversity, along with the variations in economic conditions, while being corresponding with international norms of behavior. ISO 31000 – Risk management ISO 31000 establishes a structure, principles and a process for managing the risks and can be applied to any type of organization in private or public sector. The document does not authorize or approve of a "one size fits all" approach, but instead stresses upon the fact that the risk management should be customized to the particular structure and needs of a certain organization. There are experts from more than 28 countries who make up the working group which introduced the ISO 31000 standards. All these members are the representatives of all the continents excluding Antarctica. The meetings conducted by the working groups bear strong attendance, which goes up to 40 or 60 delegates, relying on the venue of meeting, with a prominent functional group that took part in every meeting. It is mainly due to the efforts of the core functional group that ISO 31000 is represented as the modern and best throughout the managing of risks in the organizations. The core group formed for the meetings is supported for its capabilities by the national mirror committees and other experts and delegates. The process of risk management contained in ISO 31000 comprises of the sophisticated and well thought out lead established by the Australian and New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 4360. It consists of the following commitments: Consultation and communication Context establishment The assessment of organizational risks comprising of three stages of identification, analysis and evaluation Treatment of risk Reviewing and monitoring The process formulated by the ISO requires it to be a connected section of the management of business at all levels. It needs to be customized well in accordance with the processes of business and interwoven into the organizational practices and culture which make it distinct and unique from the rivals in the same industry. The records should be able to trace all the activities which provide the basis for improvement in the tools and methods along with the general processes. Finally, the characteristics of the improved risk management has been set out by an informative annex for the organizations that are in the process of practicing risk management for some time and might want to struggle for the higher achievement level. ISO 50001 - Energy management ISO 50001:2011 pertains to the document related to Energy management systems containing within it the requirements with guidance for use. It is an International Standard which is voluntarily formulated by ISO (International Organization for Standardization). The document, ISO 50001, provides the companies and businesses the requirements for the energy management systems (EnMS). It produces a structure for institutional, governmental and commercial facilities, industrial plants, and all other organizations to deal with energy. On applying the broad targets, it is approximated that the standards of managing the energy provide by the ISO 50001 will influence up to 60% usage of the world’s energy on all economic and national sectors. The MNCs or the multinational organizations will have easy reach to harmonized and balanced implementation standards of managing the energy systems across the entire organization with a consistent and logical method for the implementations and identification of improvements. The ISO 50001 standards aim to achieve the following: Aide the organizations in using their assets of energy consumption in a better manner, Create and facilitate transparency and interact on the management of the energy providing resources, Foster the best practices of managing energy and strengthen and support good behaviours of managing energy, Help the facilities in prioritizing and assessing the introduction of new technologies which are energy-efficient, Facilitate the structure for the promotion of energy efficiency along the supply chain, Encourage the improvements for managing energy for the projects of reduction in emission of greenhouse gases, Enable the integration and combining with the other systems of organizational management which include health and safety, and environment protection standards. ISO 9000 – Quality management The family of standards containing the ISO 9000 represents a unanimous consensus of the management practices of good quality acknowledged at the international level. It contains the guidelines and standards relating to the management system of quality and relevant standards of supporting. The ISO 9001:2008 pertains to the document that provides standard in the form of a uniform needs for the management system of quality of the organization’s products and services. These standards are set by the organization irrespective of the nature of the activities of user organization, its scale and scope, or the sector in which it performs in business and operates its functions. In the entire family of standards, it is the only standard which requires the organizations to get them certified but the certification is also not a compulsory requirement for the attainment of this standard. The ISO 9000 document refers to the management of quality. It requires the organizations to meet the quality requirements of their customers, apply regulatory and lawful requirements while aiming upon the improvement of customer satisfaction and achievement of constant improvement of the organizational performance while perusing its objectives. The document lays down the requirements that must be met by the organization’s quality system but it does not suggest the way in which they should be attained in the certain organizations. This allows great flexibility and scope for the execution of this standard in various sectors of business and its cultures, along with the varying national cultures in a region. ISO 14000 – Environmental management The ISO 14004:2004 facilitates the organizations with the guidelines regarding the features of the formulation and execution of the management system of environment and discusses the major challenges involved in it. The document lays down the need for a system of the environment management. The organizations need to provide objective evidences in order to fulfill these requirements which can be reviewed and inspected to exhibit the effective operations of the environmental management systems in agreement and full compliance with the standards. The document does not describe the stages and extent of the performance of environmental standards. In case of any specification of the levels of the environmental performance, each business activity would have to be specific to these standards and there would be a need to chart out particular EMS standards for every business in accordance with its nature and functions. The intention of ISO 14001 is to facilitate the organization with a structure for a completely strategic approach towards the environmental plans, policies and actions of the organization. The document provides the organizations a generic set of requirements for the management of its environmental policies. The fundamental philosophy states that the needs of an effective EMS are same and irrespective of the activities and operations of organizations. Publications and E-Products The Danish Standards (DS) and ISO have published a handbook with mutual efforts on the geometrical product specifications (GPS). For publishing this book, around 120 standards by the ISO offer an internationally coordinated foundation for scientific drawing, which bears many benefits for the trade and manufacturing. Besides such books in print, the ISO also contains packs, which comprise of the standards established by ISO/TC 34, Food products, for the purpose of assisting the workers in the food chain regarding their perceptions and approach to the management of food safety. It also elaborates upon the implementation of the system and the demonstration of achievements, on the foundation stone of traceability standard (ISO, 2012). Besides this, ISO published magazines, quality-assuring checklists of standards, online databases, and additional information regarding the ISO procedures and standards. Conclusion ISO, International Organization of Standardization, is a quality assuring non-governmental organization which assists the businesses all across the world in managing their quality, environmental and other related standards. Some of the standards introduced by the ISO include ISO 14000 – Environmental management, ISO 9000 – Quality management, ISO 50001 - Energy management, ISO 31000 – Risk management, and ISO 26000-Social Responsibility. All these aim upon establishing the products, services and environment of the organizations in accordance and compliance with the regulations and standards of quality. REFERENCES ISO, 2012, About ISO, Web, Retrieved on April 20, 2012 ISO, 2011, ISO Strategic Plan, Web, Retrieved on April 20, 2012 ISO, 2012, ISO Store, Web, Retrieved on April 20, 2012 ISO, 2012, Management and leadership standards, Web, Retrieved on April 20, 2012 Read More