Management system standard ISO 9001 has reached the final stage of the revision process. ISO member countries now have 2 months to form a national position and vote on the latest draft of the standard before the 9 September deadline.
A vote on an earlier draft (Draft International Standard – or DIS) of the revised ISO 9001 was approved in November 2014 by around 90% of members, but the committee also received over 3 000 comments with suggestions on possible improvements.
Since then, the committee has met twice, in Ireland and Lithuania, and carried out extensive online discussions to analyze and decide on every comment received during the vote. Now that a final draft (FDIS) has been completed and translated, ISO members will proceed with a national consultation before submitting their final vote.
Nigel Croft, Chair of the ISO subcommittee revising the standard (ISO/TC 176/SC 2), said: “Other than a general ‘tidying-up’ of the overall text, and greater consistency in the use of specific terms, there have been a number of small technical changes. For example, top management must now promote the use of risk-based thinking in addition to a process approach. We have also added explanations about the process environment applied to service organizations, and greater requirements for production and service activities to prevent human error.”
The new edition of ISO 9001 is expected in September 2015.