Afnor Normalisation has presented the guidelines for the revision of ISO 9001, scheduled for publication in September 2015.
The revision of ISO 9001 had been requested by many countries, including France, during the systematic review organized by ISO - the international standards organization - between October 2011 and March 2012. ISO therefore asked its member countries to propose a set of specifications for approval in early October 2012.
Generally speaking, the experts' aim is to harmonize ISO 9001 with other management system standards, while simplifying its application and adapting it to the current concerns of organizations.
Those involved in the revision will therefore take into account the brand new management system standard structure applicable to all themes, the expectations expressed in the global survey carried out in 2011, and will draw inspiration from the work carried out on the 19 concepts likely to adapt the standard to the current contexts of organizations.
Thus, a clause on planning has been added - with the explicit integration of risk and opportunity management - another clause on determining the needs and expectations of QMS stakeholders, and a chapter on performance evaluation.
Structurally, certain clauses will change their names to enable logical groupings and an extension of their scope. This is the case for the "Support" clause, which will encompass resource management, communication and documentation; and the "Operation" clause, which will cover the "product realization" of 9001:2008, with the exception of paragraph 7.6 on the control of monitoring and measuring equipment, which will be integrated into chapter 9 of the new structure on performance assessment.
A set of specifications accompanied by a "preliminary draft" adopting the new management system standard structure was submitted to the 54 countries participating in the work for approval. They were largely approved in early October 2012, with no negative votes recorded.
What are the French positions?
The forty-strong French standardization committee is very active, making numerous proposals. These are shared by the majority of other countries, enabling rapid progress to be made on the new version.
France is particularly vigilant in ensuring that ISO 9001 is accessible to SMEs. It is also making sure that the notion of "risks" is properly related to business risks linked to products, processes and customer relations, and that the new requirements can be audited. It also ensures that certain concepts, such as process management, knowledge management, the notions of efficiency indicators and results, the voice of the customer, with clarification and differentiation of an organization's multiple customers, and the role of management in the QMS - Quality Management System - are reinforced, with better alignment of the QMS with managerial practices and the company's strategic objectives.
The French members also want to see the synergy between Lean Management and ISO 9001, as recommended in FD X50-819, a French standards document published in July 2011.
Based on the preliminary draft, the national delegations - including the French delegation - submitted their comments in October, along with new amendments relating to the 19 concepts.
Colombia, for example, has asked for financial resources to be taken into account, Switzerland is proposing to strengthen requirements on product conformity and risk management (in line with the French proposals), Brazil (like France) is asking for the notion of responsible purchasing to be taken into account, the USA is proposing to strengthen the link with product conformity, Japan to add requirements on the theme of measurement, and Canada to take into account the 19 concepts identified and analyzed by the relevant ISO technical committee (ISO TC 176 SC2) since the publication of the 2008 version.
Learn more: www.afnor.org