Standartization and certification

Высшая школа иностранных языков «Лингва» федерального государственного бюджетного образовательного учреждения высшего профессионального образования «Казанский национальный исследовательский технологический университет»

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

КУРСОВАЯ РАБОТА ПО ДИСЦИПЛИНЕ

«ПРАКТИКА ПЕРЕВОДА»

«STANDARDIZATION AND CERTIFICATION»

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Выполнила: студентка 3 курса

Ведерникова А.Р.

Проверил: преподаватель

Шарипова Л.Х.

 

 

 

 

2015

Содержание

Терминологический словарь ………………………………………….. 3

1 International Organization for Standardization ……………………….. 4

2 Certification …………………………………………………………… 7

3 Standardization ………………………………………………………... 9

4 Accreditation ………………………………………………………….. 10

5 Labels ………………………………………………………………..... 11

6. Economics of environmental and social labelling ……………………. 11

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Терминологический словарь

Make up - состоять

Ensure quality – гарантировать качество

Facilitating - содействие

Impact - влиять

Benefits - преимущества

Brake down - устранять

Conformity - соответствие

Reassure - убеждать

Intend - предназначаться

Stakeholders – заинтересованные стороны

Provide - обеспечивать

Insight - понимание

Approache - подход

Cost savings – экономия средств

Enhance - повышение

Access - выход

Prevent - предотвращать

Competitive advantage - конкурентоспособность

Reduce - снижать

Daily life – повседневная жизнь

Conform - соответствовать

Reliable - надежный

Draw on - опираться

Regulation - регламент

Compulsory - обязательный

Verification - проверка

Purchase - покупка

Preference – предпочтение

Contribute – способствовать

Vital – жизненный

Certification body – орган по сертификации

Implementation – реализация

Label – символ

Cover - охватывать

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 International Organization for Standardization

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is an independent, non-governmental membership organization and the world's largest developer of voluntary International Standards.

We are made up of our 163 member countries who are the national standards bodies around the world, with a Central Secretariat that is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

International Standards make things work. They give world-class specifications for products, services and systems, to ensure quality, safety and efficiency. They are instrumental in facilitating international trade.

ISO has published more than 19 500 International Standards covering almost every industry, from technology, to food safety, to agriculture and healthcare. ISO International Standards impact everyone, everywhere.

The ISO story began in 1946 when delegates from 25 countries met at the Institute of Civil Engineers in London and decided to create a new international organization ‘to facilitate the international coordination and unification of industrial standards’. In February 1947 the new organization, ISO, officially began operations.

Since then,we have published over 19 500  International Standards covering almost all aspects of technology and manufacturing.

Benefits of International Standards

International Standards bring technological, economic and societal benefits. They help to harmonize technical specifications of products and services making industry more efficient and breaking down barriers to international trade. Conformity to International Standards helps reassure consumers that products are safe, efficient and good for the environment.

Benefits of standards:

ISO has developed materials describing the economic and social benefits of standards, the ISO Materials. They are intended to be shared with decision makers and stakeholders as concrete examples of the value of standards.

The repository of studies on economic and social benefits of standards provides an insight of the approaches and results of the studies undertaken by different authors, such as national and international standards bodies, research institutes, universities and other international agencies.

For business

International Standards are strategic tools and guidelines to help companies tackle some of the most demanding challenges of modern business. They ensure that business operations are as efficient as possible, increase productivity and help companies access new markets.

Benefits include:

• Cost savings - International Standards help optimise operations and therefore improve the bottom line
• Enhanced customer satisfaction - International Standards help improve quality, enhance customer satisfaction and increase sales
• Access to new markets - International Standards help prevent trade barriers and open up global markets
• Increased market share - International Standards help increase productivity and competitive advantage
• Environmental benefits - International Standards help reduce negative impacts on the environment

For Society

ISO has over 19 500 standards touching almost all aspects of daily life.

When products and services conform to International Standards consumers can have confidence that they are safe, reliable and of good quality. For example, ISO's standards on road safety, toy safety and secure medical packaging are just a selection of those that help make the world a safer place.

 

 

To make sure that the benefits of ISO International Standards are as broad as possible, ISO supports the involvement of consumers in standard development work with its Committee on consumer policy (COPOLCO).

International Standards on air, water and soil quality, on emissions of gases and radiation and environmental aspects of products contribute to efforts to preserve the environment and the health of citizens.

For government

ISO standards draw on international expertise and experience and are therefore a vital resource for governments when developing public policy.

National governments can use ISO standards to support public policy, for example, by referencing ISO standards in regulations. This has a number of benefits, including:

• Expert opinion - ISO standards are developed by experts. By integrating an ISO standard into national regulation, governments can benefit from the opinion of experts without having to call on their services directly.
• Opening up world trade - ISO standards are international and adopted by many governments. By integrating ISO standards into national regulation, governments help to ensure that requirements for imports and exports are the same the world over, therefore facilitating the movement of goods, services and technologies from country to country.

For more information on the advantages and benefits of using ISO standards to support public policy initiatives, see www.iso.org/policy, or download our brochure Using ISO and IEC standards to support public policy. (An executive summary is also available).

ISO also has an online platform for policy makers related to how to use conformity assessment standards in regulations. Combining theory and practice, it also offers concrete examples of referencing such standards in regulation. 

 

 

 

2 Certification

Certification can be a useful tool to add credibility, by demonstrating that your product or service meets the expectations of your customers. For some industries, certification is a legal or contractual requirement.

ISO does not perform certification.

At ISO, we develop International Standards, such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, but we are not involved in their certification, and do not issue certificates. This is performed by external certification bodies, thus a company or organization cannot be certified by ISO.

However ISO's Committee on Conformity Assessment (CASCO) has produced a number of standards related to the certification process, which are used by certification bodies.

When choosing a certification body, you should:

• Evaluate several certification bodies.
• Check if the certification body uses the relevant CASCO standard
• Check if it is accredited. Accreditation is not compulsory, and non-accreditation does not necessarily mean it is not reputable, but it does provide independent confirmation of competence. To find an accredited certification body, contact the national accreditation body in your country or visit theInternational Accreditation Forum.

Can I use the ISO logo?

The ISO logo is a registered trademark and cannot be used by anyone outside of ISO, unless authorised.

If you wish to use a logo to demonstrate certification, contact the certification body that issued the certificate.

Certification is a procedure by which a third party gives written assurance that a product, process or service is in conformity with certain standards. Certification can be seen as a form of communication along the supply chain. The certificate demonstrates to the buyer that the supplier complies with certain standards, which might be more convincing than if the supplier itself provided the assurance.

The organization performing the certification is called a certification body or certifier. The certification body might do the actual inspection, or contract the inspection out to an inspector or inspection body. The certification decision, i.e. the granting of the written assurance or "certificate", is based on the inspection report, possibly complemented by other information sources.

Certification is always done by a third party. The verification is done and the assurance is provided by a party without direct interest in the economic relationship between the supplier and buyer. An internal control is a first-party verification. When a buyer verifies if the supplier adheres to a standard, it is a second-party verification.

It is important to note that third-party verification does not automatically guarantee impartiality or absence of conflicts of interest. First, the standard-setting can be done by any party. The producer (first party) can set the standard, in which case the producers' interests are likely to be reflected in the standard. Also the buyer (second party) can set the standard, in which case business interests will be reflected in the standard. Second, if the standard-setting and certification body are one and the same body, this can also cause conflicts of interest. The standard-setting body would like to see high implementation rates of its standard, or have a bias against certain types of producers for ideological reasons, which can influence certification decisions. Third, a conflict of interest might arise depending on who pays for the certification costs. Commercial certification bodies face competition from other bodies and they might lose clients if they are too strict.

 

 

3 Standardization

One of the main objectives of standardization is usually that everybody adheres to the same standards, i.e. the same procedures or product specifications. This may ease logistical procedures, facilitate trade, prevent consumer deception and improve quality. It is easy to see how standardization facilitates trade and other logistical procedures, if only by looking at the complications that different weight measurement systems can cause. However, increase in quality is not an automatic result of standardization. This will only be achieved when the advocated standard is a "high" standard, i.e. the requirements are an improvement in relation to common practice.

Standards

Standards are defined by ISO as documented agreements containing technical specifications or other precise criteria to be used consistently as rules, guidelines or definitions, to ensure that materials, products, processes and services are fit for their purpose.

From this definition it becomes clear that standards are not only used for standardization, but also as "guidelines", i.e. for capacity building.

Product standards are specifications and criteria for the characteristics of products. Process standards are criteria for the way the products are made. Social and environmental standards in agriculture are essentially process standards. These process criteria might or might not influence the characteristics of the end products.

Process standards can be further divided into management system standards and performance standards. Management systems standards set criteria for management procedures, for example for documentation or for monitoring and evaluation procedures. They do not set criteria for the performance of the management system in terms of what actually happens in the field or the packing station. Performance standards, in contrast, set verifiable requirements for factors such as the non-use of certain pesticides, or the availability of sanitary services.

Setting international standards has proven to be very difficult due to the variety of circumstances that exist around the world. This is especially true for agricultural practices, which have to respond to differences in climate, soils and ecosystems, and are an integral part of cultural diversity. In response to this diversity, international environmental and social standards are often normative standards, i.e. generic standards or guidelines to be used as a framework by local standard-setting or certification bodies to formulate more specific standards. It has to be noted that environmental and social standards in agriculture usually do not have the purpose of standardization per se, but are developed to improve environmental and social sustainability in the variety of existing farming and agro-trade systems.

4 Accreditation

The system of rules, procedures and management for carrying out certification, including the standards against which it is being certified, is called the certification programme. One certification body may execute several different certification programmes. To ensure that the certification bodies have the capacity to carry out certification programmes, they are evaluated and accredited by an authoritative body. Certification bodies may have to be accredited by a governmental or parastatal institute, which evaluates compliance with guidelines set by ISO, the European Union or some other entity for the operation of certification and inspection bodies. In addition, standard-setting bodies might accredit certification bodies for the scope of their particular standard. When the standard-setting body has developed normative standards, they will evaluate whether the specific standard used by the certification body is in line with the generic standard and whether they are satisfied with the method of verification.

Certification and accreditation comes at a cost. The implementation of standards usually requires investments, but sometimes results in a reduction in production costs in the longer term.

 

 

 

5 Labels

A certification label is a label or symbol indicating that compliance with standards has been verified. Use of the label is usually controlled by the standard-setting body. Where certification bodies certify against their own specific standards, the label can be owned by the certification body.

While the certificate is a form of communication between seller and buyer, the label is a form of communication with the end consumer. For this communication to be effective, the label must be meaningful. For the Consumers' Union in the United States of America, a meaningful label is not only backed up by a good certification system without conflicts of interest, but the system must also be transparent, information on the content and the organization behind the label must be accessible and there should be opportunities for public comment. The Consumers' Union also advocates that the meaning of the label must be consistent across the range of products that carry that label.

6. Economics of environmental and social labelling

Labelling has the opportunity to create niche markets in which higher prices may be obtained. The underlying economic theory for labelling products can be traced back to Stigler's work on the economics of information. In Stigler's work, information is portrayed as a valuable resource, and in particular, information on prices. Determining the prices demanded by each seller for a product is a time-consuming task. Nelson contends that the problem of determining quality levels is even greater than that of determining price levels. In addition, as quality might not be visible at the moment of purchase, there is an incentive for sellers to promise high quality products but market poor quality products, as pointed out by Akerlof. Thus, in some markets, the consumer faces more uncertainty with respect to quality than with respect to prices.

Economists distinguish between search, experience and credence attributes of products. Search attributes are those characteristics that consumers can examine before purchasing the product, such as price, size and colour. Experience attributes are those that can be evaluated after purchasing the product, such as taste. Product attributes that consumers cannot evaluate even in use are called credence attributes. Environmental impact of production methods and labour conditions along the supply chain are credence attributes.

Suppliers may make claims for the experience and credence attributes of their products in the form of advertising, but suppliers will only undertake advertising as long as they see this as a means to increase market share, and will only disclose information that is advantageous to them. Aldrich argues that this results in explicit claims for all positive aspects of goods and causes consumers to be suspicious of goods without claims. Consumers are likely to be more sceptical about a supplier claim regarding credence attributes, because they know they are not in a position to control its validity even after purchase. Labelling on the basis of third-party verification can transform credence attributes into search attributes, i.e. those attributes that can be checked by consumers at the moment of purchase.

If information on the quality per unit of food is evenly distributed between producers and consumers, then the market equilibrium will be efficient. Consumers are able to purchase the goods that best match their preferences and society's resources are used efficiently. If, however, information is asymmetric, then this market equilibrium will not be efficient. An example might be when producers cheat on quality standards. Asymmetric information in particular may be a problem in markets for foods with negative credence attributes (e.g. pesticide residues, or use of child labour in the production process). In these cases, firms may have no incentive to disclose information and consumers may end up purchasing goods that do not match their preferences. In this case, the market does not work efficiently: goods that would be profitable with full disclosure may go unproduced while those of lesser value to consumers are produced instead. This is where certification (third-party verification) and labelling can create an efficient market by removing asymmetry of information, provided that the labels used are meaningful.

 

 

 

1 Международная организация  по стандартизации