Industries

ISO certification by industry: the standards 16 sectors are asked for

ISO certification by industry starts from who is asking: customers, regulators and tenders in each sector expect different standards. Choose your sector to see the standards it usually needs, the drivers behind them and how Sterling builds the system with your team.

How to use the industry pages

How do the industry pages help you choose the right standards?

Each of the 16 industry pages is written for buyers in that sector. It names the standards that customers, regulators and tenders in the sector ask for, explains what drives each requirement, describes how scope is set for the sector's sites and processes, and shows how an engagement runs from gap analysis to the certification audit. Manufacturing and automotive suppliers usually meet quality and customer-specific requirements first. Technology, SaaS and BPO firms meet information security and privacy questions from their clients. Food and beverage businesses meet the food safety schemes their retail and brand customers require. Laboratories and inspection bodies seek accreditation rather than certification, and healthcare, pharmaceutical and medical device organisations work within regulatory requirements as well as standards.

Many organisations sit in more than one sector, and many sectors share standards. ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 appear on most of the pages because they share a common structure and can run as one integrated management system, so each additional standard adds less work than the first. Where a sector adds its own scheme, such as IATF 16949, AS9100, FSSC 22000 or ISO 13485, the industry page explains how it relates to the ISO base and what the sector's auditors look for.

If your sector is not listed, or you are not sure which standards apply, Select the Standard™ suggests the standards your sector expects, each labelled as certification, accreditation, attestation or compliance, and the standards and frameworks pages group every standard into 19 families. Sterling does not certify. The certificate comes from an accredited certification body, the attestation report from an independent auditor and accreditation from an accreditation body; each industry page says which applies to each route, and how Sterling prepares you for it.

The industries

ISO certification for 16 industries

Open your sector to see its standards, drivers, scope and engagement.

Not listed? Select the Standard™ suggests the standards for your sector, and Standards and frameworks lists every family.

60+countries where Sterling has delivered certification
21countries with a Sterling office, eight regions, one coordinated team
2003the year the group began implementing ISO management systems; the same method, refined, since
8,100+client engagements across the group, from single-site SMEs to multinationals

FAQs

Standards by industry

Three questions buyers ask when their sector sets the requirement.

Which ISO standards are requested most across industries?

ISO 9001 is the most widely requested, because customers and tenders in almost every sector use it as the baseline for quality. ISO/IEC 27001 follows wherever an organisation handles client data or runs services for other businesses, and ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 are common in supply chains, construction and public tenders. Sector schemes then add to that base where customers require them.

Do sector standards replace ISO 9001?

Not usually. IATF 16949 supplements ISO 9001 and is used together with it, and AS9100 contains the ISO 9001 requirements with aerospace, space and defence additions, so certification to either covers the ISO 9001 base. ISO 13485 is a standalone standard for medical device quality management, and organisations that need both it and ISO 9001 often run them as one system.

Can one engagement cover sites in different sectors or countries?

Yes. One programme can cover several sites, sectors and countries under one engagement team and one Effivity workspace, with shared policies, risk assessment and internal audit wherever the standards allow. The certification body plans its audits across the sites under its own rules, and Sterling prepares each site for the visits it will receive.

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