Quality (business) and those of competitors (the quality gap). In the past two decades this quality gap has been gradually decreasing between competitive products and services. This is partly due to the contracting (also called outsourcing) of manufacturing to countries like China and India, as well internationalization of trade and competition. These countries, among many others, have raised their own standards of quality in order to meet international standards and customer demands. The ISO 9000 series of standards are probably the best known international standards for quality management, though specialized standards such as ISO 15189 (for medical laboratories) and ISO 14001 (for
ISO 20252 committee) reports that 69 organizations (not counting subsidiaries) are accredited to the standard: The Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO) has passed 17 organizations through its ISO 20252 accreditation scheme: ISO 20252 ISO 20252:2012 is an international quality standard first published in 2006 as a replacement for the existing British Standards BS 7911:2003. It was subsequently updated in 2012. Developed by an ISO Technical Committee in liaison with professional bodies EFAMRO, ESOMAR and WAPOR, the standard sets out requirements in a Quality Management System for organizations conducting market, opinion and social research. The standard is divided into five sections