A series of groundbreaking case studies by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and partner organizations shows that implementing standards can provide economic benefits from between 0.5 and 4 percent of companies’ annual sales revenues.

Manufacturing and metrology leaders have announced a new certification body establishing performance standards for service providers and equipment manufacturers in the rapidly expanding digital metrology industry.

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

Any improvement effort ultimately faces the issue of standardizing processes, in many cases under the intense pressure of an impending certification audit.

Because many organizations are trying for formal certification, the pressure is on to standardize and document processes. This is also true for any robust improvement effort.

Management system standards trace their beginnings to the use of simple preventive practices that were developed and used at the beginning of the industrial revolution.

In part one of this two-part article, we looked at the history of management system standards.

More than ever, businesses need ways to improve their operations to better gain, serve, and retain customers while reducing costs and improving margins.

The electromagnetic force has gotten a little stronger, gravity a little weaker, and the size of the smallest “quantum” of energy is now known a little better.

Standard: “A document, established by consensus and approved by a recognized body, that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of ord