International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a global non-governmental organization. It is a very important organization in the field of international standardization. ISO one comes from the Greek word "ISOs", which means equal. ISO was founded in 1947. China is a full member of ISO. The national organization representing China to participate in ISO is China National Bureau of technical supervision (CSBTS).

ISO is responsible for standardization activities in most fields (including military, petroleum, shipbuilding and other monopoly industries). ISO has 117 members, including 117 countries and regions. The highest authority of ISO is the annual "General Assembly". Its daily office is the Central Secretariat, which is located in Geneva, Switzerland. The Central Secretariat currently has 170 staff members under the leadership of the Secretary General. The aim of ISO is "to promote the development of standardization and related activities in the world, so as to facilitate the international exchange of goods and services, and to cooperate in the intellectual, scientific, technological and economic fields." ISO carries out technical activities through its 2856 technical structures, including 611 technical committees (SC), 2022 working groups (WG) and 38 task forces. China joined ISO in 1978 and became a permanent member of ISO at the 31st international standards organization conference in October 2008.

The international organization for standardization is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with 162 member states. The organization defines itself as a non-governmental organization and its official languages are English, French and Russian. Participants included national standards bodies and major companies of Member States. It is the largest non-governmental standardization institution in the world and a very important organization in the field of international standardization.

The content of the standard covers a wide range, from basic fasteners, bearings, raw materials to semi-finished products and finished products. Its technical fields involve information technology, transportation, agriculture, health care and environment. Each organization has its own work plan, which lists the standard items (test methods, terminology, specifications, performance requirements, etc.) to be formulated.

The main function of ISO is to provide a mechanism for people to reach consensus on international standards. Its main organization and operation rules are stipulated in a document named ISO / IEC technical work guidelines. Its technical structure is composed of 800 technical committees and subcommittees, each with a chairman and a secretariat. The Secretariat is held by each member state. There are 30 member groups responsible for the work of the Secretariat. Each Secretariat and the ISO central secretary are located in Geneva Keep in direct contact.

Through these organizations, ISO has published more than 17000 international standards, such as ISO metric thread, ISO A4 paper size, ISO container series (95% of the world's shipping containers meet ISO standards), ISO's film speed code, ISO's open system interconnection (OS2) series (widely used in the field of information Technology) and the famous ISO9000 series of quality management standards.

In addition, ISO has liaison relations with 450 international and regional organizations on standards, especially with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). There are 28 international standards bodies outside the ISO / IEC system. Each agency sets international standards in a particular area, usually under the control of the United Nations. A typical example is the World Health Organization (who). 85% of the international standards formulated by ISO / IEC and the remaining 15% are formulated by these 28 other international standards bodies.