The International Organization of Standards (ISO) has been a subject of many discussions over the years with manufacturing and service companies alike – what is ISO, what benefits can ISO bring to my company, what will it take to manage ISO if we do move forward, and more specifically, how much is this going to cost me? ISO is an international standard that thousands of companies comply with and subscribe to in this global economy.

1. ISO Registration Standards – The Transformation
ISO has been a subject of many discussions over the years with manufacturing and service companies alike – what is
ISO, what benefits can ISO bring to my company, what will it take to manage ISO if we do move forward, and more
specifically, how much is this going to cost me? First of all, for this discussion, the ISO that I am referring to is the
International Organization of Standards for quality which was linked to a quality problem during the second world war
when the British munitions factories were trying to manufacture bombs for the European war effort. At the time, there
was one small problem where bombs were exploding in the factory before they ever saw the plane. For obvious
reasons, this needed to be addressed and it was decided that a more standard and consistent practice for making
bombs was needed. The solution – document the manufacturing processes and procedures and prove that they were
being followed. The result was that everyone was aware of how the process was to be done, there was consistency of
product coming out of the factory and a very serious problem had been addressed. This all took place back in 1946 and
spawned the British Management Standard – BS 5750.
This process of standardization continued to develop in various parts of the world and in 1987 the British government
persuaded the International Organization for Standardization (created in 1947) to adopt BS 5750 as what we now know
as the ISO 9001-2008 standard. Companies were motivated to become ISO certified because they saw the need,
similar to the munitions factories, to standardize as well as document what they were doing to produce consistent
products. Since its inception in 1987, the basic standard (ISO 9001) has been revised three times and has morphed
from a document control based process to a system that is now focused on control and improvement of the process.
Soon to come is the fourth edition of the standard which we are told will be coming out sometime in late 2015. There
have been many more ISO related standards that have been developed since the beginning and are available for any
company who wishes to be compliant, or more importantly registered, in their respective industries – medical device
(13485), aerospace (AS9100), energy (50001), environment (14001) and companies who need to be compliant to the
requirements of Sarbanes Oxley (27001), which we can thank our friends at Enron for. To date there are 27 different
standards and there are more in the works.

2. As mentioned previously, ISO is an international standard that thousands of companies comply with and subscribe to in
this global economy. China and Europe have been the fastest growing ISO registered regions in the world and
companies producing in or to these regions are required to have ISO certification as a prerequisite to doing business.
Also, it is now apparent that most of the large Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) and defense contractors are
requiring ISO of their preferred supplier base - “Not ISO? Don’t talk to us”. I think that it is fair to say that ISO, in
addition to the aforementioned market penetration benefit, provides additional benefits to the manufacturer which
includes:
1. A competitive advantage over your competition
2. Bottom line improvement through waste reduction and the streamlining of business processes
3. It attracts investment, enhances brand recognition and reduces barriers to trade, and,
4. If a company is in fact primed for growth, it improves business/process performance, manages risk and
increases customer satisfaction, which are all key to establishing an infrastructure that will support growth for
the long term.
Over 1.8 million companies in 180+ countries are currently ISO registered and growing at a rate of about 15% annually.
Becoming an ISO registered company is not a panacea for creating more business or a magic potion that we all search
for so that we can meet the ever increasing customer demands. It still comes with an out of pocket cost, a lot of hard
work but most of all, a commitment on the part of top management to not just make this happen but to invest in this
long term strategy that will provide dividends applied to the long term success of the company.
If you are interested in learning more about the upcoming changes to the ISO Standard, come join us for what is sure
to be a very informative session scheduled for June 10th
in Wilmington. Also, a panel of experts including Raytheon
Corporation will be discussing how ISO has affected their businesses and what they expect with these new changes.
Visit the MassMEP website at www.massmep.org or the Smaller Business Association of New England (SBANE) at
www.sbane.org