Page 10 - Enterprise Engagement and ISO Standards eBook

Enterprise Engagement and ISO Standards

How and Why Organizations Comply with ISO Standards

As of 2014, more than 1.3 million organizations worldwide held ISO 9001 certifications
alone.4 Compliance with ISO standards is voluntary. Organizations follow the standards
either to improve processes and quality as an internal exercise, or to become “ISO certified.”

Initial certification is typically a three- to six-month process, sometimes including the
elevation of processes to meet the standards and then compiling thorough documentation
of those processes. Once this has been achieved, an initial third-party audit is conducted.
ISO itself does not certify. This is done, for a fee, by a network of thousands of certification
bodies worldwide. In choosing a certification body, consider providers who have been
assessed by CASCO (ISO’s Conformity Assessment body). CASCO determines the
requirements a certification body needs to comply with to demonstrate it is competent to
certify organizations under specific ISO standards.5

The companies that audit for ISO compliance are always separate from the companies that
provide certification support services to minimize the potential for conflict of interest.

If an organization passes the certification audit, it receives certification good for three years.
If not, the organization must resolve the issues flagged by the audit. To maintain
certification, organizations must conduct ongoing annual audits during the three years and a
recertification audit at the end of each three-year cycle.6 7

Certification tells an organization’s customers and other stakeholders that the organization
has met and adheres to defined quality standards and/or product specifications. This boosts
the organization’s reputation for reliability and/or compliance with international standards.
It may attract more customers and/or qualify organizations as suppliers to buyers who insist
on ISO Certification.

How it Works

ISO operates mainly through its thousands of active technical committees and working
groups, each comprised of interested service suppliers, manufacturers, governments,
academics and other concerned individuals from anywhere on the planet. Those involved
must demonstrate expertise in the subject matter area relevant to the proposed standard.

4 Wikipedia (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9000)
5 See: https://www.iso.org/conformity-assessment.html
6 ACS Registrars (see: http://www.iso9001.com)
7 Quality Digest (see: https://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/quality-insider-article/maintaining-iso-management-
standard.html

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