International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published a combined book and CD giving organisations advice on how to make integrated use of management system standards.
The integrated use of management system standards distils the experience and expertise of an ISO task force comprising 16 members drawn from business organisations representing a wide range of countries and sectors, as well as from standards bodies and academia.
According to Petra Eckl, leader of the task force, the book provides a good mixture of theory and practice and will be useful for beginners as well as for the experienced.
“It will form a bridge between the increasing number of ISO management system standards that meet specific concerns of organisations and their stakeholders, and the user organisation’s own and unique management approach,” she said.
ISO management system standards (MSS), such as ISO 9001:2000 for quality management and ISO 14001:2004 for environmental management, are among the most widely used international standards, while new ISO MSS are gaining ground including the ISO 22000 (food safety), ISO 28000 (supply chain security) and ISO/IEC 27001 (information security).
Contrary to other types of standard, management system standards cover multiple aspects, levels and functions of an organisation therefore their implementation can have a substantial impact on how an organisation operates and manages its business processes.
The book acknowledges a market need for separate management system standards addressing different aspects, issues or risks that organisations need to manage.
It provides guidance on how organisations can apply the different standards in a combined way, integrated with their business processes.
Based on the practical experience of organisations that have successfully made integrated use of management system standards, the book identifies a variety of methodologies, tools and practices.
The accompanying CD (inside the back cover) contains real-life examples from 15 case studies made in a wide variety of situations.
Examples are included from companies in Asia, South America and the Middle East, as well as Europe and North America.
Multinational companies are included as well as smaller ones, in different sectors of activity, for profit and not-for-profit, applying different sets of management system standards.
www.iso.org
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