ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world's largest developer and publisher

of International Standards.

ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 162 countries, one member per country,
with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system.

ISO is a non-governmental organization that forms a bridge between the public and private
sectors. On the one hand, many of its member institutes are part of the governmental structure of
their countries, or are mandated by their government. On the other hand, other members have their
roots uniquely in the private sector, having been set up by national partnerships of industry
associations.

Therefore, ISO enables a consensus to be reached on solutions that meet both the requirements
of business and the broader needs of society.

The ISO Story

ISO is the world largest standards developing organization. Between 1947 and the present day,
ISO has published more than 16 500 International Standards, ranging from standards for activities
such as agriculture and construction, through mechanical engineering, to medical devices, to the
newest information technology developments.

Given the multi-sector scope of the organization, it would be hard to present an historical
perspective summarizing the challenges, the passion, the outstanding achievements or,
sometimes, the missed opportunities, in the large variety of sectors covered by ISO’s technical
work.

We have therefore chosen to highlight the key markers in the history of the organization from a
general perspective.

Founding
ISO was born from the union of two organizations - the ISA (International Federation of the National
Standardizing Associations), established in New York in 1926, and the UNSCC (United Nations
Standards Coordinating Committee), established in 1944.

In October 1946, delegates from 25 countries, meeting at the Institute of Civil Engineers in London,
decided to create a new international organization, of which the object would be "to facilitate the
international coordination and unification of industrial standards". The new organization, ISO,
officially began operations on 23 February 1947.
 The early years
In April 1947, a meeting in Paris produced a recommended list of 67 ISO technical committees,
about two-thirds of which were based on previous ISA committees. By the early 1950s, ISO
technical committees were starting to produce what were known at the time as
“Recommendations”.

The basic idea of post-war international standardization was to derive International Standards from
those already developed nationally, and then to re-implement them nationally. ISO’s
Recommendations were therefore only intended to influence existing national standards.

The first ISO General Assembly was organized in Paris in 1949. It was inaugurated at a public
meeting held in the grand amphitheatre at the Sorbonne University.

Developing countries
In the course of the 1950s and 1960s, an increasing number of new ISO member bodies came
from the developing world.

The International Standards developed by ISO are of high value to developing countries. They offer
indeed practical solutions to a variety of issues related to international trade and technology
transfer because they represent a reservoir of technological know-how and of product,
performance, quality, safety and environmental specifications.

However, to take advantage of International Standards and to participate in their development,

developing countries had to face substantial additional problems in comparison with industrialized
nations, ranging from the lack of established industrial infrastructures and related technical
components (including national standards, metrology and testing institutions and facilities), to the
severe limitation of financial and technical resources.

Since the 1960s, the membership and role of developing countries within ISO has been
continuously increasing. In parallel, the attention of the organization to the needs of developing
countries has substantially evolved, along with the undertaking of programmes providing technical
assistance and capacity building and a variety of initiatives to facilitate developing countries'
participation in international standardization.

ISO International Standards

According to ISO’s first-ever Annual Review in 1972, the underlying causes of the acceleration of
the pace of international standardization included “an explosive growth in international trade”
caused by a “revolution in transportation methods”. By the mid-sixties a demand, not only a desire,
for International Standards had developed. The sources of this demand included multinational
companies, standards institutions in developing countries and government regulatory authorities.
 What had laid the foundation for the growth of the output of ISO during the seventies was the turn
in emphasis from national to International Standards which took place in the late 1960s.

This change of emphasis was underlined by the decision in 1971 to begin publishing the results of
ISO’s technical work as International Standards rather then Recommendations.

The establishment of the GATT Standards Code

From 1948 to 1994, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) provided the rules for
much of world trade and presided over periods that saw some of the highest growth rates in
international commerce.

ISO grasped immediately the importance of the GATT Standards Code and actively promoted the
value of ISO’s International Standards to be used worldwide as instruments facilitating the
elimination of unnecessary barriers to trade, and, whenever needed, as a suitable basis for
technical regulations.

The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (now WTO TBT) was eventually amended in the
Uruguay Round and turned into a multilateral commitment accepted by all WTO members.

Since 1979, ISO has taken the commitment and implemented all the necessary measures to
ensure that ISO’s International Standards are fully compliant with the requirements set by the
Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade of the WTO.

Quality management standards

The vast majority of ISO’s International Standards were highly specific to a particular product,
material, or process. However, during the 1980s, ISO entered into new areas of work, destined to
have enormous impact on organizational practices and trade.

In the 1970s, many major organizations (private and governmental) published their own quality
management standards, which introduced the idea that confidence in a product could be gained
from an approved quality management system and quality manuals. The Canadian CSA Z 299
series of standards were issued in the mid-1970s and the British standard BS 5750 was issued in
1979. In December 1979, the USA issued ANSI/ASQC Z-1.15, Generic Guidelines for quality
systems.

Whilst the increase in international trade stimulated the development of internationally-recognized

quality management standards, it was feared that a variety of different national standards would be
a barrier to international trade.

The ISO technical committee (TC) 176, Quality management and quality assurance, was therefore
established in 1979. The first standard issued by ISO/TC 176 was ISO 8402 (in 1986), which
 standardized quality management terminology. It was followed in 1987 by ISO 9001, ISO 9002 and
ISO 9003, which provided the requirements for quality management systems operated by
organizations with varying scopes of activity, from those including an R&D function, to those
uniquely carrying out service and maintenance., These standards were completed by ISO 9004,
providing guidance on quality management systems.

This accomplishment marked the beginning of a long journey - with the ISO 9000 family of
standards set to become the most widely known standards ever.

Environmental management and other

management standards
ISO's portfolio of generic management systems standards was extended beyond quality during the
1990s.

In particular, the establishment of the ISO technical committee ISO/TC 207, Environmental
management, was the result of a sequence of activities, leading to a coordinated world response to
common environmental challenges.

The recommendation to ISO and IEC led to the creation in 1993 of ISO/TC 207, Environmental
management, which held its inaugural plenary session in Toronto in June of 1993. The tremendous
impact of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 on organizational practices and on trade has stimulated the
development of other ISO standards and deliverables that adapt the generic management system
to specific sectors or aspects.

 Food safety
 Information security
 Supply chain security
 Medical devices
 Local government
 Education

The ISO Strategic Plan 2005-2010

Between 1994 and 2003, ISO experienced an explosive growth in membership. Total members
increased by nearly 50% (from 100 to 147) and the number of full members increased by 20 units
(from 76 to 96) - contributing to make ISO a truly global organization.

In the same period, ISO's reach to different categories of stakeholders also increased dramatically,
through both the national standards bodies' network and the extended cooperation with a large
variety of international organizations, including governmental and non-governmental entities.
The ISO Strategic Plan 2005-2010 - Standards for a sustainable world was developed by the ISO
Council on the basis of the input from the consultation, and approved by the ISO General Assembly
in Geneva, in September 2004.

The document proposes a global vision for ISO in 2010, seven key objectives for 2010 with
expected results and actions for their achievement, and a description of ISO's added value.

ISO in India
National standardization activity started in India in 1947 with the establishment of the Indian
Standards Institution (ISI) as a society under the Societies Registration Act 1860, to prepare and
promote the adoption of national standards. In 1952, the Institution was also given the responsibility
of operating a certification marking scheme under an Act of Parliament.

In 1986 the national authorities made a review of the structure and status of ISI and assessed the
impact made by it on the national economic development and the technological growth of various
sectors of Indian industry. The Government of India felt that a new thrust had to be given to
standardization and quality control activities, and that a national strategy had to be evolved for
giving appropriate recognition and importance to standards and for integrating them with the growth
and development of production and exports in different sectors.

The Government of India therefore decided to create a statutory organization as the national
standards body which was named as the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), with adequate
autonomy as well as flexibility in its operations to achieve harmonious development of the activities
of standardization, certification marking and connected matters. The Bureau of Indian Standards
Act was passed by the Parliament in 1986 and BIS came into being on 1 April 1987.
 Quality Management
Assignment

ISO as an
Organisation- History
Submitted to: Dr. Enoch

Aarthi Raman
MSW2/08/01
MSW SHIFT-II, 2ND YR.