ISO Focus - March 2008

Conformity assessment

ISO Focus, March 2008

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Compliance with international standards helps ensure the reliability, safety, efficiency and interchangeability of products and services. It thus facilitates the participation of businesses in the global marketplace and strengthens their competitiveness.

This issue of ISO Focus takes a close look at conformity assessment – the process of verifying compliance with international standards. The issue explores all facets of conformity, including testing, surveillance, inspection, auditing, certification, registration and accreditation.

Here you will learn about the practical toolbox of standards and guides produced by CASCO – the ISO committee on conformity assessment. This valuable toolbox eases comparability of assessment results and promotes their wide international recognition.

The issue also features a number of industry success stories, and covers a wide range of topics including non-destructive testing, product certification, accountability and consumer protection among many others.

The March issue features an interview with Pierre Delayen, Vice President on Corporate governance and health at Saint-Gobain, a leading international company in the building sector. Mr. Delayen says “Standards play a key role in our enterprise, presenting a two-fold interest: on the one hand, for the internal dissemination of best practices and optimization of internal organization and structure and, on the other hand, as a quality guarantee for our customers and stakeholders.”

Comment

Olivier Peyrat
Chair of ISO/CASCO
Building confidence

Guest view

Pierre Delayen
Vice President, Corporate Environment, Health and Safety (EHS), Saint-Gobain

“International certification is crucial in order to assess and benchmark performance between different countries.”

Main Focus

Conformity assessment

Providing confidence in testing and calibration
Global accreditation made easy with ISO conformity assessment toolbox
IQNet's harmonized approach towards assessment and certification
Ensuring vehicle performance
TL 9000 - A telecom industry success story
Auditing auditors - A standard for reliable certification bodies
Improving product certification
Moving into the next generation of conformity assessment
Non-destructive testing to reduce risk of failure
Compliance programmes - A roadman to accountability
Promoting quality in West Africa

New on the shelf

New ISO/IEC Guide on vocabulary of metrology reflects evolution of science of measurement
Safer electronic financial transactions with new ISO standard for state-of-the-art biometric authentication
ISO to develop new management system standard for improving road safety on global level
ISO 17090 will help secure exchange of healthcare information on Internet