Records facilitate transparency standard

In the wake of recent failures in corporate governance, two new ISO standards will help organizations to disclose corporate information quickly and effectively. Increased pressure by industry regulators obliges companies to provide such information because irregularities in financial management, ethical dealings, disclosure, and transparency of decisions have become common.

ISO 30300:2011, Information and documentation – Management systems for records – Fundamentals and vocabulary, and ISO 30301:2011, Information and documentation – Management systems for records – Requirements, distil the expertise of experts drawn from 27 countries on five continents.

These standards have been developed to be compatible with and complementary to other management system standards (MSSs) developed by ISO, such as ISO 9001 (quality management), ISO 14001 (environmental management), and ISO/IEC 27001 (information security management).

ISO 30300 is the umbrella standard which includes the fundamentals and vocabulary common to the whole series, while ISO 30301 specifies requirements for an MSR (management system for records). Further standards in the ISO 30300 series are under development.

Judith Ellis and Carlota Bustelo, leaders of the working groups that developed the standards, underline that, “The ISO 30300 series offers the methodology for a systematic approach to the creation and management of records, aligned with organizational objectives and strategies. Managing records using an MSS supports cost-effective operational processes, such as storage, information retrieval, information re-use, litigation and due diligence.”

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ISO escalators security standard

A new ISO standard will increase the safety and user comfort of the escalators used around the world on a daily basis by millions of people.

Escalators are installed in many locations such as shopping centres, cinemas, airports, railway stations and subways and they are used every day in the world by millions of people.

ISO technical report ISO/TS 25740-1:2011, Safety requirements for escalators and moving walks – Part 1: Global essential safety requirements (GESR), specifies safety requirements for escalators and moving walks, the components and functions, and provides methods for

minimizing safety risks that might arise in the course of the operation and use of, or work on, escalators and moving walks.

The objective of this technical specification is to define a common global level of safety for all people using, or

associated with, escalators and moving walks and provide a uniform process for assessing their safety. The requirements will help:

Developers of safety or safety-related standards for escalators and moving walks
Designers of escalators and moving walks, manufacturers and installers, and maintenance and service organizations
Independent third-party conformity assessment bodies
Inspection and testing bodies and similar organizations.

ISO/TS 25740-1 facilitates innovation of escalators and moving walks not designed according to existing local, national or regional safety standards, while maintaining equal levels of safety (if such innovations become state of the art, they can then be integrated into the detailed local safety standard at a later date).

Developed as a product safety standard, the technical specification will help users and non-users to be protected from the effects of falling, shearing, crushing or abrasion, or other injuries. The objectives of the safety requirements are to:

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International standards – Creating confidence globally

 World Standards Day is celebrated each year on 14 October to pay tribute to the efforts of thousands of experts worldwide who collaborate within IEC, ISO and ITU to develop voluntary International Standards that facilitate trade, spread knowledge and disseminate technological advances.

The theme of World Standards Day 2011 is, “International standards – Creating confidence globally”.

The World Standards Day message is signed by the leaders of the three principal

international standardization organizations: Dr. Klaus Wucherer, President of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC): Dr. Boris Aleshin, President of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and



Dr.Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The three organizations are the partners making up the World Standards Cooperation (WSC).

Their message points out that international standards for products and services underpin quality, ecology, safety, reliability, interoperability, efficiency and effectiveness. Standards do all of this while giving manufacturers confidence in their ability to reach out to global markets safe in the knowledge that their product will perform globally.

This is because international standards provide interoperability which in turn creates economies of scale and ensures that users can obtain equal service wherever they travel. So international standards benefit consumers, manufacturers and service providers alike. Importantly, in developing countries this accelerates the deployment of new products and services and encourages economic development.

“In today’s world we need to have a high level of expectation that things will work the way we expect them to work,” the three leaders affirm.

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Global market research

The first-ever set of agreed global minimum quality standards for the market, opinion and social research industries have been launched today – promising to put MR agencies across the world on an equal footing.

Experts from MRQSA, the UK research quality standards association, outlined the requirements of the new ISO mark in London today. It was the culmination of more than two years of development work involving 22 participating member countries.

Bill Blyth, chairman of MRQSA, said: “The benefits of transparent, unanimously agreed international standards is that they overcome barriers to trade and  reassure both internal and external clients that agencies can definitely do basic research.

“We have deliberately designed the voluntary standards to work in developing countries where companies may not have computers or telephones. This means it works for everybody in any market and is as simple as it can be.

“However, this is work in progress…the best stab we could make in the process of difficult worldwide negotiations. What we have isn’t perfect and amendments and improvements will no doubt take place over time.”

The differences between ISO 20252 and the departing UK standard, BS 7911, are numerous. Some of the new requirements are:

• Internal quality audits at pre-determined intervals

• Measuring customer/client satisfaction with an agency’s service

• Translation of questionnaires and related material to be carried out by individuals with ‘mother tongue’ competence in the language

• Explicit identification of potential problems in sampling and responses

• All self-completion questionnaires to be pre-tested

• If automatic coding is used, estimation of error rates are required

• Additional information to be included in stand-alone tables and delivered to client

• Methodological details to be passed to client whether they want it or not

• To include reasons why achieved sample fell short of what was intended and comment on reliability of findings.

• Limitations of projecting results to overall population to be stated for qualitative research

Penny Steele, chairman of the Interviewer Quality Control Scheme, said: “In terms of fieldwork, the requirements of the new ISO include all key elements of the BS 7911. However they are less detailed and prescriptive as we wanted to create an international standard that recognized and acknowledged how fieldwork is carried out in all the different countries.”

The key fieldwork differences include:

• The data, duration and identity of the interviewer must be recorded

• For qualitative recruitment all respondents must be validated, their ID confirmed and documented.

• No specific requirements for supervisor recruitment or training

• The use of written invitations for qual respondents or prior checking of new qual venues have gone

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Every product or service has an impact on the environment during all stages of its lifecycle, from extraction of resources to end-of-life treatment. The goal of ecodesign is to integrate environmental aspects into the design and development of products and services so as to reduce their environmental impacts and continually improve their environmental performance throughout their lifecycle. The result: cleaner products and services and a greener planet.

The newly published ISO 14006:2011, Environmental management systems – Guidelines for incorporating



ecodesign, gives “how to” guidance to product and service organizations on incorporating ecodesign into any environmental, quality or similar management system.

It will help organizations establish, document, implement, maintain and continually improve their management of ecodesign as part of an environmental management system (EMS). It applies to those environmental aspects of an organization’s products and/or services over which it has control or influence.

Integrating ecodesign offers several advantages:

• Economic benefits, e.g. through increased competitiveness, cost reduction and attraction of financing and investments
• Promotion of innovation and creativity, and identification of new business models
• Reduction in liability through reduced environmental impacts and improved product knowledge
• Improved public image
• Enhancement of employee motivation.

Martin Charter, Convenor of the working group responsible for ISO 14006, comments: “The new standard has been developed to help organizations implement ecodesign in a flexible and practical manner. The goal is for organizations to use these principles in order to design and develop more advanced, profitable and sustainable goods and services.”

ISO 14006:2011 is applicable to any organization, irrespective of their size, geographical location, culture, or complexity of their management systems, and no matter how simple or complex the product or service.

The new standard is intended to be used primarily by organizations that have implemented an EMS according to ISO 14001, whether or not they have a quality management system according (QMS) to ISO 9001. It can also be useful for other organizations without a formalized EMS or QMS but which are interested in reducing the adverse environmental impacts of their products.

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Car park ticket machines, computer keyboards, equipment for use in a cold store – these are just three varied examples of the millions of products that should be safe for people to use, accessible and should not pose unreasonable difficulties to operate. To achieve this, they must incorporate ergonomics principles into their design. A new ISO standard on ergonomics will therefore help optimize human well-being and overall system performance. “A substantial number of ergonomics standards have been developed to cover specific issues and different application domains, but ISO 26800:2011, Ergonomics – General approach, principles and concepts, will serve as an umbrella reference for all such standards and provide an integrated framework bringing together the basic

principles and concepts of ergonomics in one document, and thus providing a high-level view of the way in which ergonomics is applied“, commented Georg Krämer, Chair of ISO Technical Committee that developed the standard. “It is the first time where the “general ergonomics approach” and “principles and helpful “concepts” for the understanding and application of ergonomics principles, are presented in a comprehensive way in one standard”, he added.

Whatever the context (work, leisure or home), the underlying principles of ergonomics remain the same. These principles are fundamental to the design process wherever human involvement is expected, in order to ensure the optimal integration of human requirements and characteristics into a design.

ISO 26800 describes these fundamental principles in order to improve safety, performance and usability (effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction), while safeguarding and enhancing human health and well-being, and improving accessibility, e.g. for elderly persons and persons with disabilities.

Ergonomics addresses the interactions between the humans and other components of a system, such as other humans, machines, products, services, environments and tools, as appropriate, in order to optimise human well-being as well as the overall system performance. In ergonomics, a human-centred approach to design is fundamental, taking into account the specific nature of the task and its implications for the human.

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The WTO’s focus is on maintaining an open, equitable and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system which generates opportunities for market access.



However, he added: “If, at the technical level, countries speak a different language, then those opportunities disappear. And if regulatory agencies don’t trust the quality or safety of each others products, they may not allow trade to take place. International standardizing bodies, such as ISO, have an important role in building bridges.

“In fact, it is the very reason that two key WTO Agreements (the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade and the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures), explicitly urge regulators to base their measures on relevant international standards to avoid unnecessary barriers to trade. These Agreements go as far as to say that measures that are based on relevant international standards are assumed to be in compliance with WTO rules.

“But this vote of confidence by the WTO confers upon international standardizing bodies significant responsibility. How you set your standards is crucial. Indeed, WTO Members have agreed that for greatest effectiveness, international standards should be developed through open and impartial, transparent and consensus-based process. These are the very same principles that underpin the WTO.

“Let me underline two points I believe are important, one on process, and the other on substance.

“On process, delegations at the WTO repeatedly emphasize the importance of transparency and accountability in development of international standards, calling for broad stakeholder engagement. In this context, I reiterate the importance of enhancing effective developing country participation in the work of international standardizing bodies. International standards must reflect developing country needs. When they do, they stand a greater chance of actually being used.

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The brochure explains that what makes ISO so effective is that it provides a non-political, non-partisan platform where standards are developed through open, transparent processes by representatives of the people that need them, implement them, are affected by them – and who can review and continually improve the results of their implementation.

Agreements reached at events like the Earth Summit and the forthcoming Rio+20 at the intergovernmental level, between public and private sectors, and with civil society still need to be translated into practical actions that can be implemented worldwide.

The brochure states: “ISO is where expert representatives from these stakeholder categories work together to develop globally relevant standards that provide concrete responses for tackling the challenges facing the international community.

“ISO is where people from around the world who want to make a positive difference put on the same team colours and strive to forge tools for transforming global agreement and willpower into global action.”

The brochure provides a concise description of ISO and how it works, and concrete examples of achievements by the international community, who will be represented at Rio+20, working within the ISO system. The examples illustrate how ISO standards serve as tools in the three dimensions of sustainable development. Examples include the following:

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Six Sigma(1) a data-driven method for improving business and quality performance, has been published as a two-part ISO standard.

Six Sigma was originally developed by Motorola in 1986 to ameliorate manufacturing processes with the goal of 99.99966% (2) of products free of defects (i.e., 3.4 errors per million).

Today, the methodology is applied in many sectors of activity by organizations large and small for all types of process and services to:

• Drive process improvement and make statistically based decisions
• Measure business results with a level of reliance
• Prepare for uncertainty
• Combine high returns and benefits in the short, medium and long-term
• Remove waste, defects and errors.

“Six Sigma can be used to effectively address serious chronic business issues,” says Dr. Michèle Boulanger, President of JISC-Statistics and co-chair of the subcommittee that developed the standard, “Organizations can deploy Six Sigma projects to increase customer satisfaction and become more competitive.”



“Although Six Sigma has existed for some time, bringing its best practice together under an ISO standard helps solidify and consolidate the methodology. The ISO brand is respected and recognized worldwide, and thus provides an added layer of confidence. Moreover, publication of Six Sigma methodology in an ISO standard will boost international uptake of the methodology in a coherent form, reduce fragmentation, and provide users with harmonized best practice,” concluded Dr. Boulanger.

Six Sigma projects follow a defined sequence of steps with quantified goals and financial targets (cost reduction and/or profit increase), and rely on statistical tools to deal with uncertainty. Implementation involves the establishment of an infrastructure with specific roles and responsibilities (e.g. black or green belts). The new standard, ISO 13053:2011, Quantitative methods in process improvement – Six Sigma, deals exclusively with the application of Six Sigma to ameliorate existing processes and is published in the following two parts:

• Part 1: DMAIC methodology, describes the five-phased methodology DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control), and recommends best practice, including on the roles, expertise and training of personnel involved in such projects.
• Part 2: Tools and techniques, describes tools and techniques, illustrated by factsheets, to be used at each phase of the DMAIC approach.

Both documents can be applied to all sectors and organizations.

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GRI was one of the 42 public or private sector organizations that participated with the representatives of 99 ISO member countries in the development of ISO 26000, the International Standard giving guidance on social responsibility, which was published on 1 November 2010.

Following the launch of the standard, GRI published a linkage document on how to get the best out of ISO 26000 in conjunction with its Sustainability Reporting Guidelines – GRI and ISO 26000: How to use the GRI Guidelines in conjunction with ISO 26000.

The MoU was signed in Geneva, Switzerland, where ISO’s Central Secretariat is located, on 5 September 2011 by ISO Secretary-General, Rob Steele, and GRI Chief Executive, Ernst Ligteringen.

The MoU is intended to leverage the activities of the two organizations related to reporting and benchmarking by business and on sustainable development by sharing information on ISO standards and GRI programmes, teaming up with other partners, participating in the development of new or revised documents, joint promotion and communication.



ISO and GRI are also to support and promote each other’s involvement in initiatives related to sustainable development, such as the Rio+20 conference in Brazil in 2012, and other programmes by organizations such as the United Nations Global Compact, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the United Nations Environment Programme.

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