I’ve been reviewing the next version of ISO 9001, the committee draft (CD) of it, anyway; officially ISO/TC 176/SC 2/N 1147 dated 3 June 2013. It will eventually become ISO 9001:2015.
As I audit, and I do about two or three Registration audits per week (sometimes one, sometimes five), people often ask me what changes are coming for them. Between publications like this new draft and discussions with colleagues and the various associations we’re involved with, I do sometimes get a little advance warning. Naturally, some of this has to be taken under caution – even the contents of an official ISO 9001:2015 Draft, because things do change.
I’ll do a few more detailed posts on this, and podcasts here and on my Facebook Page, QMSC – but I’m pretty pleased with two changes in particular.
CONTINUOUS, CONTINUAL – DISCONTINUED
The first is this whole “continuous/continual” improvement split hair. The ISO 9001:2008 version changed the word “continuous” to “continual” to express the idea that sometimes there are plateaus in the improvement journey and the word “continuous” implied a constantly increasing ramp of continuous. Really?
So now, the word “continual” has been changed to… drumroll – ” “. Yep, no word at all in ISO 9001:2015; simply “Improvement”. Now we can leave the semantics to the… semasiologists.
PREVENTION – PREVENTED
And that revelation leads me to the second: gone is “Preventive Action”. Never liked the lines in the sand drawn by corrective action, preventive action, corrections, continual improvement – enough already. It just confuses people and dilutes the concept of Improvement in general. Now prevention ties nicely with the ISO 9001:2015 concept of Risk.
And more on that in a later installment.
So, just a few quick notes on the next version of ISO 9001 (2015) –
Go forth, and calibrate thyself – Sal