Since its inception in 1987, ISO 9001 has adopted an update interval of 6-8 years to keep management standards abreast with the constantly changing landscape of business. Earlier this year, however, the organisation made the decision to leave its management standard unchanged until its next revision period which is expected to happen in 2030.
This decision comes after conducting a long process that involves a user survey, internal review, and a ballot among organisation members in 2020. The technical subcommittee tasked to take charge of the review and revision process then approved the decision in May of 2021.
While there were a variety of impactful developments that occurred since the last revision, the organisation believes that the 2015 version of ISO 9001 can still effectively guide organisations towards a high-quality management system.
ISO 9001:2015 already introduced an acceptable framework on the use of new information technologies which is where the bulk of the technological innovations of the past 6 years were concentrated. Further, ISO 9001:2015 introduced a risk-based thinking to management standards that proved extremely useful in how organisations handled the global health crisis of 2020 and 2021. With these two major updates, organisations should still be able to uphold quality management systems that inspires confidence in all stakeholders of an ISO 9001 certified organisation.
The move to retain ISO 9001:2015 means that organisations that have already reached compliance with the current standard do not need to make major changes to their management systems for another 9 years. It should be noted that the next update will most likely have some major changes in store for businesses. Watch this space!