ISO standards are divided into the ISO 9000 series for quality management and quality assurance systems and the ISO 14000 series for environmental management systems. Recently QS 9000 standards, which the automobile Big Three (i.e., Ford, DaimlerChrysler, and GM) require from their subcontracted suppliers of parts and accessories have also been recognized as being in the same category as ISO standards.

The ISO 9000 series makes specifications for quality management and quality assurance systems for products and services. Depending upon the degree of standardization and the applied objects, the ISO 9000 series is classified into four categories, 9001 through 9004. ISO 9001 checks the overall quality management and assurance system of the entire process of production, from product design, through development, manufacturing, and installation, to service. ISO 9002 reviews only production and installation.

ISO 9003 applies to final inspection and testing, while ISO 9004 applies to consulting on quality management.

The ISO 14000 series is a set of international standards established to standardize methods and systems for environmental management. All of the ISO 14000 series except for ISO 14001 are in the form of guidelines.

QS 9000 standards integrate the requirements which have been applied by each automaker. Autoparts and accessories suppliers which do not satisfy these requirements and standards cannot supply goods to the Big Three.

- Korea Economic Daily, November 27, 1998

ISO 9000 includes 20 prerequisites for quality guarantee. Under the assumption that the supplier's quality system satisfies all 20 prerequisites, the certification body examines whether the company concerned runs an effective quality system and practically applies it to its performance.

ISO 9000 is known to be the most effective method for establishing a company's quality system, and therefore business entities are recommended to utilize it. With only a few exceptions, most countries have adopted the international standards under the ISO 9000 family as their domestic standards not only for advanced companies but also for developing companies.
The number of countries implementing certification systems based on ISO 9000 is increasing at a steady pace.
Many countries have started applying ISO 9000 standards as tools to examine companies' already-operating production facilities, or have replaced their existing standards with them. Accordingly, a number of large-sized companies apply ISO 9000 standards to their business activities in all workplaces.

Conventionally, some environmental experts or personnel in a corporation have been put in charge of finding solutions to environmental problems, but ISO 14001 demands company-wide participation in systematic environmental care to nip problems in the bud. The ISO 14001 standards aim at integrating environmental concepts with business strategies as well as bolstering the growth of the company through environmental management. ISO 14001 tries to realize the following business management goals:

- to establish basic principles for effective environmental solutions relevant to corporate business management;
- to reduce worsening environmental problems, and thus ultimately better preserve national resources, by discovering the causes of environmental pollution relevant to business management and their serious environmental impacts, and to effectively operate environmental management systems;
- to get corporations to observe their domestic regulations and rules related to the environment, which have been becoming stricter, and systematically follow environmental policies and environmental management programs of their own;
- to minimize or remove adverse environmental effects in workplaces by specifying the employees' responsibilities, rights, procedures, and special tasks, and keep documentary records;
- to specify an organizational system and responsibility for environmental management, and provide necessary resources.
- to promote environmental ethics in the mind of employees and provide educational programs themed on the environment;
- to gain transparency and reliability from financial institutions including banks and insurance companies, shareholders and interested parties, and people in general by making public the results of environmental management;
- and to heighten the company's competitive edge over rivals through the aforementioned environmental management activities.