ISO is the International Standard Organization and it is established in 1947. It is world’s largest developer and publisher of International Standards. ISO is a non-government federation of national standards bodies which forms a bridge between the public and private sectors.
ISO has developed its institutes in 163 countries with one member in each country and have its Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system. ISO is developing and publishing thousands of new ISO standards every year. Till now, ISO has developed more than 19,000 International Standards on a variety of subjects.
ISO is developing new standards day by day for Standardization to help create best practices for public and private sector businesses. Each of the ISO standards provides quality requirements about specific areas for different industries.
Features of ISO standards:
• These are standards of system of production
• These are generic and practical standards
• These are not product standards
• These ensure consistency of product quality
• In this, mistakes are corrected in a systematic way so that chances of repetition are reduced.
Types of ISO:
• ISO 9000 for general quality management
• ISO 13485 for medical device manufacturers
• ISO 14000 Books for Environmental Management
• ISO 15706 for Audiovisual
• ISO 18416:2007 for Cosmetics
• ISO 9241/ISO 10075 for Ergonomics
• ISO 7218:2007 for Food Safety
• ISO 14416 for Libraries
• ISO/TR 27809:2007 for Health Software
• ISO/TC 67 for Petroleum
Some Benefits of ISO:
• Conformance of products and services provide assurance about quality, safety, & reliability
• Remove technical trade barriers and Support political trade agreements
• Business- Wide acceptance of products and services, Free to compete in broader market
• Government – Provides technical and scientific underpinnings for health, safety, environmental legislation
• It reduces rejection/rework and improves housekeeping and team work
• It increases morale of the company and its credit in the market
• Contribute to quality of life ensuring transport, machinery and tools are safe
• It improves team work and discipline in the organization
• It saves cost by avoiding repetition of work, unnecessary records and monitoring processes
• Due to increased confidence of customers in you, you get more & more orders
Steps for effective implementation of ISO:
• We must know the complete details of the work we are doing
• We must know our Work Procedures in detail
• Our work place must be neat and clean
• Everything must be attached with a label/tag/color along with its status i.e. For Inspection/Accepted/Rejected/for rework etc.
• All the inspection, measuring & test equipment must be calibrated
• We must maintain records, wherever written in the work procedures
• We must be ready for change