GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — A recent vote approved the latest draft of the revised International Organization for Standardization 9001 on quality management systems. The document can now progress to the next stage of the ISO standard development process.

ISO 9001 is undergoing the periodic revision standards generally go through every three to five years to ensure they are relevant and up-to-date. The new edition, expected in 2015, will feature some important changes.

The latest draft was put to vote according to ISO procedures and received nearly 90 percent approval, which is enough for it to progress to the next stage: Final Draft International Standard (FDIS).

Experts in the ISO subcommittee revising the standard will now go through all the comments received during the DIS vote in order to produce a final draft which will then be put forward for voting. Once approved, the standard can then be published.

"We are on the right track, and we are on schedule for publication,"says Nigel Croft, chair of the ISO subcommittee revising the standard. "The new version is very strongly based on three basic core concepts — that process approach which was very successful in the 2008 version of the standard superimposed on that system of processes is the plan-do-check act methodology, and a third core concept which is new in the 2015 version is risk based thinking, aiming at preventing undesirable outcomes."

ISO 9001 is one of ISO’s most well-known standards, with more than 1.1 million certificates worldwide. It provides requirements to help companies demonstrate that they can offer their customers consistent, good quality products and services. It also provides a framework to help them streamline their processes and become more efficient at what they do. ISO 9001 can be used by organizations of all types and sizes. The standard has inspired a series of documents for sector-specific applications including for the automotive sector, the medical sector, local governments and more.
Too see a video of Nigel Croft explaining what's new and the next steps, visit youtu.be/1JIMyvpP0tw.

For additional information, visit www.iso.org.