ISO 9001:2015 final draft published

The ISO 9001 Quality Management System standard was first released over 30 years ago, with millions of organisations worldwide adopting the system to focus on increased growth, productivity, retention and customer satisfaction.

In September this year, a new 2015 edition will be published, which is the first major revision since 2000. The Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) has been published and it reflects changes in the business landscape in terms of increasingly complex supply chains and a globally competitive economy.

Some of the key changes include:

• a greater emphasis on building a management system suited to each organisation’s particular needs;
• top management of an organisation will be involved and accountable, aligning quality with wider business strategy;
• risk-based thinking throughout the standard makes the whole management system a preventive tool and encourages continuous improvement;
• less prescriptive requirements for documentation, meaning that an organisation can now decide what documented information it needs and what format it should be in;
• alignment with other key management system standards through the use of a common structure and core text.

ISO 9000, which is also being revised and will be published at the same time, outlines the terms and definitions crucial to understanding ISO 9001.

Existing certification clients have three years (from when the new edition publishes) to transition from the 2008 version to the 2015 version. Business standards experts at BSI Group have developed a suite of materials, services and courses to help make this transition as smooth as possible and invite interested companies to make contact for further information.