THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ORGANIZATION (ISO)

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) puts forth standards for a wide variety of industries and a broad spectrum of activities within those industries. The organization is most often associated with quality control issues, but also covers topics such as food safety (Nuthall, 2004).

The organization's main purpose is to facilitate the development of international standards. This is particularly critical in today's global environment where goods and services may be produced in one country for sale in another by a company based in a third nation. Although standardization is taken for granted in many instances, there was a notable lack of standardization for most of human history. Today, hand tools such as nails and screws use common measurements; that was not the case even 200 years ago when such tools were custom made and could not be used from one worker to another, let alone from one manufacturer to another.