ISO 9001:2015 Recent Changes to the Standard, Easier for Service Industries Today

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This provides an insight where by using Quality Management Systems businesses can actually save money and improve efficiency in defined roles where everybody knows what is going on.

The international Standards Organisation (ISO) is responsible for reviewing standards and improving them to being more workable. Quality Management Systems were originally developed as far back as the early 1900s where there was a problem with the ammunition that was not able to be used from an absence of calibration of measuring devices and standard measurement blocks.


This was known in the laboratories around the world as Guide25 which was in circulation for over 30 years until it was later reviewed as ISO17025:2005. This is what is used for the Laboratory accreditation around the world , that was overseen by the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA)and the Joint Accreditation System of Australia  and New Zealand JAZ ANZ that works with associated organisations as the International Accreditation Forum(IAF). Referred as the checker checkers, that audit the certified accreditation bodies to ensure the standards are followed.


ISO 9001 was introduced to the business world in 1995, where if a company wanted to supply to government departments it was then important to have a quality system in place, or basically not able to supply any product and services. The standard and the manuals were quite large and bulky, and there was a huge amount of paper that was consumed in the process.


The objective of the standard or the system is to document processes,and if procedures are not followed, then either review and/or change the procedure to reflect actual practice.


Implementing Quality Management into a company does not happen overnight. When Independent Inspections first introduced it into the quarry operations, it took  three years to get the bugs out of the system.


The standard was previously inclined towards the manufacturing industry and had some sections that did not apply to the service industries, but with the latest changes changes, this will make it easier to understand.


There are two main elements that are the basis of the standard, which are the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) and the Risk based thinking. “As there are Quality, Safety and Environmental and Corporate and Social Responsibility Risks in business operations, so why not put them together instead of having separate pigeon holes for each system” says Peter Greenham.


The new framework is in five key areas, Leadership, Planning , Support, Operation and Evaluation. This puts the common sense back into the standard that even confuses lawyers in what they are trying to convey in the message of compliance to the standard.


Leadership is the commitment from top management that defines the role to the personnel in the operations. Planning is for the Objectives of the company and controlling of the risks and the register of control measures. Support is where evaluation is needed to see if there is enough people, knowledge and equipment to carry out the job at hand.  Operations controls the process similar to the 1995 standard requirements, making it easier.  Performance evaluation is where the audit mechanism comes into play and is an effective tool in monitoring feedback of the actions of the company.


With any Quality management system there are 4 key areas to look at, get this right and no problem will emerge with accreditation and certification. There are Audits, Management review, Document control and Corrective action.  If there are no audits completed then nobody is checking if the system is effective and that stems from a lack of leadership. A Management review meeting is held on a twelve monthly basis, and if these are not held that there is a lack of leadership. Document Control is also an important issue especially when out of date contracts or price lists are used and can impact on the company operations. Then there is corrective action, and if there has no corrective actions rose, then there are questions to be asked as there is no perfect system out there, that is for sure.


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