New Standards on Environmental Economics Including Sustainable Development for Q1 of 2020

Here is list of standards on Environmental Economics Including Sustainable Development that were updated in the first quarter of 2020. For a complete list of standards got here.

You can search other standards by subject and ics code here. Don’t forget to follow us for updates on all things quality standards.

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New Standards on Anaesthetic, Respiratory And Reanimation Equipment Including Medical Gas Installations Q1 of 2020

This is a list of all the standards that were updated in the first quarter of 2020. The list is alphabetical. Documents that have been replaced will link to its replacement. A complete list on the subject can be found here.

Some of these standards are available for our subscription service. Documents purchased this way are uploaded to a personalized website so you and your team can access the standards you need anywhere. For more information, read here. For all our other services to help you keep compliant, check out a full list here.

To search up other standards by ICS subject check here.

New Standards on Company Organization And Management In General Including Legal Aspects And Risk Management Q1 of 2020

These are all the changes for documents on Company Organization And Management In General Including Legal Aspects And Risk Management. A complete list of these standards can be found here.

If you would like to search other standards by subject, go here

New Standards on Health Care Technology for Q1 of 2020

Here is a list of all the updates for standards on health care technology for the first quarter this year. Follow us for more updates!

To search other standards by subject, go here!

It’s Finally Here! ISO/TR 24971

The wait is finally over! ISO has finally released the long awaited companion standard for ISO 14971:2019. Get your copy of ISO/TR 24971 here.

Photo by Jan Friml from FreeImages

As per the publisher, this technical report provides guidance to help manufacturers develop, implement, and maintain the risk management process described in ISO 14971:2019. It includes medical devices such as active, non-active, implantable, non implantable, in vitro diagnostic medical devices as well as software used as medical devices. If you need a little more information about this document, please look at our previous post on the topic found here.

So What’s New?

The new edition of ISO/TR 24971 cancels and replaces the 1st Edition of the report. If you would like to remain compliant, this document will be needed. Aside from some format changes for readability, here are some of the changes of note according to the publisher:

  • Clauses and annexes have been merged, restructured, technically revised and supplemented with additional guidance
  • Some structural changes for readability
  • Addition of informative annexes for additional guidance on specific aspects of rist management

Get your copy of ISO/TR 24971:2020 this companion standard today. You can also get yourself a copy of ISO 14971 while you are there if you need one. This document is also available for our standards subscription service. Add this document to a personalized site where you and your team can access it on any device at any time. Stop being limited by a shared single copy. Stop buying multiple copies of the same document. to learn more or try a demo, click here!

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ISO 14971 (2019) Released

If you haven’t heard by now, you should know that ISO-14971, Medical devices — Application of risk management to medical devices, has released its 3rd edition, which you can purchase here. We also offer a redline edition of the document available here.

14971 goes over the principles and processes for risk management specifically those pertaining to medical devices and in vitro diagnostic medical devices. Specifically, this will help you identify, control, and monitor the risks and effectiveness of the controls. For more details on the subject, I would suggest checking out our previous posts on the standards easily accessible here and here.

Companion Standard

Photo by Angel Norris from FreeImages

ISO 24971 is also now available for purchase! It has been long awaited but it is finally made it out of committee review. You can grab your own copy here! Don’t for get to ask us about out subscription service.

So What’s New?

Aside from a few new terms and some format changes for accessibility, there a few fundamental changes made to the document. Some of these changes include as per the publisher:

  • a clause on normative references to respect requirements for fixed ISO/IEC directives
  • terms have been updated to match up with ISO/IEC Guide 63:2019
  • Definitions of certain terms such as benefit, state of the art have been added
  • More attention to the benefits of use of medical devices. Benefit-risk analysis has been aligned with terminology used in some regulations.
  • The process descruved can be used for managing risk
  • Requirements to disclose residual risks have been merged into one requirement
  • Results of reviews is now risk management report
  • Requirements for production and post production activities have been restructured and clarified.
  • Several annexes moved to guidance of ISO/TR 24971

If you would like a more detailed representation of the differences between editions, check out the redline edition available here. This is a great option if you want to easily see what was changed without having to spend any time comparing it with the older edition. Change are clearly marked for viability. Ordering redline editions will give you access to both marked and unmarked editions for convenience. You can find an unmarked edition here.

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Attack of the Clones: Why are there so many versions of some ISO standards?

Here is a question I get asked all the time:  “Which standard should I use:  ASQ-Q9000, ISO-9000 or BS-EN-ISO-9000?”

And every day I look at the 2002 poster for World Standards Day with the tag line “One standard, One test, Accepted everywhere.”

So the question is, why are there so many editions of some ISO documents when our stated goal is to just have one?

To get to the bottom of this question, we’ll be talking about 3 concepts:  Jurisdiction, Adoption, and Translation.  When we get done, you’ll at least know the reason for the many “clones” of some of the most widely used ISO standards.

First of all, the concept of jurisdiction.  The ISO standards are meant to be International Standards, hence ISO, International Organization for Standardization.  However, there are other jurisdictions as well — Regional (like the European Union) and National (like the United States).

You might think that once an International Standard is published, everyone should be free to use it and that would be the end of the story.

But no — In the European Union, for example, regional standards are a response to legal regulation (the directives).  In order  to assure legal compliance to regional regulation and laws, EN standards are created as designated by applicable directives.

If an ISO document meets  the requirements of a particular directive, it can be adopted by the European Standards Body (CEN).  Then, it is published for public distribution by each country in Europe as the document is implemented.  That way, it is clear which countries are in compliance at any given time.

So, with the ISO-9000, EN adoption creates 27 differently numbered documents (like, BS-EN-ISO-9000, the official English language edition, DIN-EN-ISO-9000, the official German language edition, and so on), one for each country in the European Union.

ISO standards are also adopted by  countries as well as regions.  An example of this is the Canadian Standards Association document  CSA-ISO-9000.  In this case, the ISO-9000 is republished when Canada adopts the standard, at the national rather than  regional layer of jurisdiction.

One feature to pay attention to is the fact that the ISO standard will be reprinted in it’s entirety when adopted, but will have cover sheet administrative information as well in most cases.  This information may be about what national documents were withdrawn in favor of the ISO or EN adoption, or when the standard must be implemented by users.

And lastly, a country that is involved in the development of an ISO standard has the right to republish the document as a country-specific translation.  So, because ASQ (the American Society for Quality)  participates for the U.S.  in the Quality committee at ISO, the ASQ-Q9000 is the U.S. translation of the ISO-9000.  The U.S. translations are almost word-for-word identical to the English language ISO originals — the only difference is that the ISO standard uses British English spelling, and the U.S. uses American.  So if an ISO standard includes the word “colour” the U.S. translation would have the word spelled “color.”

So in 1992, there were 42 adoptions or translations of ISO-9000 in existence.  In 2002, 134 countries were issuing certificates of compliance and in 2007 there were 175 countries counted.

Our advice to customers is to use the highest level of jurisdiction whenever possible, because it will be revised first at the highest level.  So for the ISO-9000 standard series, ISO (the international jurisdiction) will be the first to issue technical content changes.  All adoptions and translations will happen after the initial ISO release.

However, sometimes there are reasons to choose other editions.  If cost is a factor, a national translation may often be the least expensive way to go, as all revenues go to the publishing organization only, as a way to cover the costs of committee participation.

Another reason to choose a different edition is to cater to either an important customer or a particular auditing body.  If your auditor is from BSI, you might choose the BS-EN-ISO-9000 series so that your auditor is impressed by your concern to follow the administrative information that is published in the adoption section of the publication.  If you do business in Australia, you might use the AS/NZS ISO 9000, the Australian/New Zealand joint adoption of the ISO standard.

This is always a hard concept for many people to understand.  If you’ve still got questions, please ask us by emailing us at info@document-center.com.

For our next blog, we’ll be looking at this same issue but from a different viewpoint.  I’m getting a lot of questions about why EN adoptions of ISO standards are coming out with new revisions when the ISO documents remain unchanged.  So, until next time…