The British Standards Institution (BSI) has made its first major revision to ISO 9001 since 2000.
The 2015 edition of ISO 9001 published in September will contain the new revision.
‘Since 2000 the way we do business has changed enormously,’ the organisation said. ‘We all have instant access to information and higher expectations of organizations we work with, whilst having to deal with more complex supply chains and a globally competitive economy. ISO 9001:2015 has been revised to take this into account.’
Some of the key changes include:
- Greater emphasis on building a management system suited to each organization’s particular needs
- A requirement that those at the top of an organization 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: the organization 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.
This story is reprinted from material from the BSI, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
