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The International Organization for Standardization has assigned representatives of Brazil and Sweden to lead the working group that will develop its social responsibility (SR) standard. ISO deliberately paired Sweden, an industrial country with Brazil, a developing country, to encourage…
The National Standards Strategy Committee recently met in Washington, D.C., to discuss the progress made toward revising the U.S. National Standards Strategy. Twenty-two representatives of the standards and conformity assessment community participate on the NSSC, which has been divided into four…
The world’s standards development community is gearing up for World Standards Day on Oct. 14. The celebration is in its 35th year. The theme is “Standards Connect the World.” World Standards Day is celebrated every Oct. 14 as a way of paying tribute to the collaborative efforts of the thousands of…
The International Organization for Standardization agreed on a five-year road map of progress at its 27th General Assembly last month. The assembly was held Sept. 14-16 in Geneva. Delegates approved the ISO Strategic Plan 2005–2010, which outlines seven key objectives for the organization while…
A successful peer evaluation by the International Auditor and Training Certification Association recently qualified the Registrar Accreditation Board for a new agreement to enhance worldwide recognition of auditor training courses to ISO 14001. RAB is one of the first organizations to earn an…
2003 was a year of transition for ISO 9001 and a year of significant growth for ISO 14001, reports ISO in its annual study. Study results about ISO 9001 included: Up to the end of 2003, at least 500,125 registrations had been issued in 149 countries and economies. 2003 total registrations…
The recent acquisition of Quality Certification Bureau Inc. by QMI made QMI the largest registrar in North America, according to the registrar. The buy-out includes QCB Inc., QBC Corp., and QCB Organic, companies that are collectively based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. QMI reports it now has more…
A joint committee of the American National Standards Institute and the American Industrial Hygiene Association recently released a draft Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS) standard for public review. The deadline to submit comments on the proposal is Oct. 15. ANSI established…
Social Accountability International will hold its sixth annual conference in New York City on October 18. The conference, “Corporate Social Responsibility and Workplace Standards: Responsible Strategies for Global Sourcing,” will focus on the latest developments where supply chain management and…
The revised ISO 14001 standard is scheduled to be published by the end of the year, meaning significant changes to environmental management professionals. According to the International Organization for Standardization, the changes to the standard aim to clarify it and make it more user-friendly.…
More than 150 American and Chinese government and private sector standards experts attended a workshop in Beijing Aug. 18 and 19. The event was hosted by the U.S. Department of Commerce and China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, and focused on encouraging…
Orion Registrar recently announced the hiring of a new business development manager to focus on registering plastics manufacturers to ISO 9000. Lewis Yasenchak has worked in the registrar business for more than 20 years. Orion’s new plastics program, which he will supervise, will offer auditors…
A new standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization and international maritime organizations aims at making ports around the world more secure. ISO/PAS 20858 was adopted by more than 100 member countries of the International Maritime Organization. It contains…
National Quality Assurance announced it was accredited by the American National Standards Institute-Registrar Accreditation Board to register companies to AS9003. NQA representatives report the approval demonstrates that its assessors meet the exacting standards and expertise required in the…
The presidents of the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission and the secretary-general of the International Telecommunications Union recently highlighted the importance of international standards in a joint address. The annual message…
Randy Dougherty, the Registrar Accreditation Board’s director of registrar accreditation, was recently named chair of the technical committee of the International Accreditation Forum. The appointment was made at a meeting held in Bern, Switzerland. Dougherty’s three-year term began on July 1…
The International Federation of Standards Users will meet in Amsterdam this fall to discuss managing international standards and related topics.
Now in its 11th year, the IFAN conference will focus on boosting awareness of and compliance to international standards. More than 300 participants from…
An online database of standards related to homeland security is another step the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is taking to improve defense procedures. The American National Standards Institute is combining forces with the DHS to provide a reliable resource to enable federal,…
The Registrar Accreditation Board and the Quality Society of Australasia Ltd. have agreed to form a new global personnel certification body by the end of this year. The new organization will combine the auditor certification and training course accreditation of RAB with QSA’s…
The International Organization for Standardization recently announced a new standard to help organizations satisfy dissatisfied customers. ISO 10002 is a standardized complaints-handling process that can be easily integrated into established quality management systems—especially ISO…
President George W. Bush recently signed into law the Standards Developing Organizations Advancement Act of 2004 (H.R. 1086), providing new shelter for standards developers from treble damage liability in current antitrust laws. The approval amends the National Cooperative Research and…
The International Organization for Standardization will develop a standard for social responsibility, although it will not be intended for formal certification. The decision was made at a senior ISO management meeting this June in Stockholm, following an international conference in the…
Hitachi Computer Products’ American division will replace its quality management processes with MetricStream software, the company announced recently. The solution is currently being implemented at Hitachi’s Oklahoma manufacturing division, where it manufactures large disk storage systems…
In an effort to revolutionize the way worldwide organizations measure and improve organizational performance, the American Productivity & Quality Center recently announced a new alliance with industry leaders. The Open Standards Benchmarking Collaborative seeks to establish, lead and…
The ETL SEMKO division of Intertek Group plc, a provider of testing, inspection and certification, has acquired 100 percent of the issued share capital of Entela Inc., a world leader in automotive components testing and certification. Entela will become part of the ETL SEMKO division, now…