ISO 9001
ISO 9001 is the international standard for quality management systems. Implementation of the ISO 9001 enables continuous improvement of an organizations management system and its processes. With the ISO 9001 certificate, an organization can show that the products or services delivered are up to customer demands and legal obligations. The organization aims to improve customer satisfaction by improving its management system and therefore improving its quality. Recently the ISO 9001 standard has been updated to 9001:2015 and will be released September 2015, this update has to be implemented by the certified organizations before the end of 2018 to keep their ISO 9001 certificate. This provides a three year transition period during which organizations can make changes to their existing quality management systems.
Changes ISO 9001:2015
In 2012 ISO has developed the High Level Structure (HLS) which is a joint structure for all ISO standards. This enables to have some core values which are the basis for all ISO standards including ISO 9001. A joint focus on process management and sustainable business development can found through all ISO standards. Within the new version of the standard, leadership has been given a central role. In this updated standard, top management’s commitment for the implementation of ISO 9001 is highly important. Two other major changes include customer focus and the implementation of risk-based thinking:
- Customer focus can be demonstrated by management by making sure that's products and services comply to the customer needs and risks and possibilities to improves the products and services are known and used.
- Risk-based thinking, which plays a role in multiple chapters of ISO 9001, is an important change in this update. By applying risk-based thinking, an organization will become proactive instead of reactive. By understanding and defining risks, an organization can prevent these risk, which results in a more sustainable business.
Besides these, there are various other changes which have to be considered in order to keep the ISO 9001 certification.
Transition towards ISO 9001:2015
For ISO 9001:2015 a three year transition period is applicable for those organizations that wish to update to the new version. This upgrade process will start with the identification of the impact of the major changes of the new version of the standard. The result of this gap analysis is an overview of the necessary changes within the organization that can be used as input for the implementation strategy for for instance to become compliant with the ISO norm, or implement risk based monitoring or continuous improvement. At DNV we experience and believe that the implementation of risk based thinking is an important driver for a lot of quality management systems
DNV and ISO 9001
DNV supports organizations with a customized roadmap to become compliant to this new ISO 9001 version. DNV has practical experience in risk based thinking. By providing training, workshops and advisory services our experts can tune your management system to the needs of your organisation with less bureaucracy and more added value to business operations.
ISO 9001 certification DNV (Dutch)