Flagship quality management systems standard published

A new edition of the international flagship standard ISO 9001 Quality management systems–Requirements has been published. This concludes over three years of revision work by experts from nearly 95 participating and observing countries to bring the standard up to date with modern needs.

With over 1.1 million certificates issued worldwide, ISO 9001 helps organisations demonstrate to customers that they can offer products and services of consistently good quality. It also acts as a tool to streamline their processes and make them more efficient at what they do. 

Standards New Zealand Acting Chief Executive, Stuart Ng, said ISO 9001 meets the needs of all businesses, and the 2015 revision has been made accessible to all types of enterprises, especially service-oriented organisations.

"The new version of 9001 is less prescriptive than its predecessor and focuses on performance. In developing the revision, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) committee has combined a process approach with risk-based thinking and has employed the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle at all levels in an organisation. It has also designed the 2015 version to be easily integrated with other management systems.

"The standard helps businesses to be more efficient and accreditation to it gives them a competitive advantage.

"I would like to extend my appreciation and thanks to the New Zealand public for their input, and to the members of the national review committee – particularly Dianne Baguley – for leading New Zealand’s contribution to the development of the standard."

Businesses that are currently certified to ISO 9001:2008 will need to upgrade their quality management system within three years of the published date of ISO 9001:2015 (23 September). After the end of September 2018, a certificate to ISO 9001:2008 will no longer be valid.

ISO 9001:2015 can be purchased from the Standards New Zealand website.

"Previous versions of ISO 9001 have been adopted as joint Australian and New Zealand standards and we are exploring opportunities with Australia for ISO 9001:2015 to be adopted. You can follow progress on the adoption process by signing up to our free Keep me up to date service," says Ng.