International Organization for Standardization

International Organization for Standardization is the world's largest developer and publisher of International Standards. It is a network of the national standards institutes of 162 countries, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system. Because International Organization for Standardization would have different acronyms in different languages, its founders decided to give it also a short, all-purpose name. They chose “ISO”, derived from the Greek isos, meaning “equal”. Whatever the country, whatever the language, the short form of the organization's name is always ISO.

ISO is a non-governmental organization that forms a bridge between the public and private sectors. On the one hand, many of its member institutes are part of the governmental structure of their countries, or are mandated by their government. On the other hand, other members have their roots uniquely in the private sector, having been set up by national partnerships of industry associations. Therefore, ISO enables a consensus to be reached on solutions that meet both the requirements of business and the broader needs of society.

Standards ensure desirable characteristics of products and services such as quality, environmental friendliness, safety, reliability, efficiency and interchangeability – and at an economical cost. When products and services meet our expectations, we tend to take this for granted and be unaware of the role of standards. However, when standards are absent, we soon notice. We soon care when products turn out to be of poor quality, do not fit, are incompatible with equipment that we already have, are unreliable or dangerous. When products, systems, machinery and devices work well and safely, it is often because they meet standards. ISO has more than 17500 International Standards on a variety of subjects and other types of normative documents. Some 1100 new ISO standards are published every year. ISO's work programme ranges from standards for traditional activities, such as agriculture and construction, through mechanical engineering, manufacturing and distribution, to transport, medical devices, information and communication technologies, and to standards for good management practice and for services.

ISO standards make the development, manufacturing of products and services more efficient, safer and cleaner, facilitate trade between countries, provide governments with a technical base for health, safety and environmental legislation, and conformity assessment, share technological advances and good management practice, disseminate innovation, safeguard consumers, and users in general, of products and services, make life simpler by providing solutions to common problems.

III Answer the following questions:

1. What is ISO?

2. What does ISO stand for?

3. Why are standards important?

4. How many standards does ISO have?

 

IV Complete the following sentences:

1. ISO is a network....

2. Many of its member institutes....

3. ISO is derived from the Greek isos, meaning....

4. Standards ensure....

5. ISO standards provide....

V Find the English equivalents to the words:

Недержавний, дружелюбність, міжнародні стандарти, розробник, видавець, рекомендації, ефективність, небезпечний, якість, координувати.

VI Match English words with their Ukrainian translation:

1. network a) згода

2. consensus b) нововведення

3. interchangeability c) поширювати

4. facilitate d) гарантувати

5. assessment e) взаємозамінюваність

6. disseminate f) оцінка

7. safeguard g) мережа

8. innovation h) полегшити

VII True or false statements:

1. ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 80 countries.

ISO member institutions are part of the governmental structure of their countries, or are mandated by their government.