First steps for preparing the future ISO 9001

The ISO Technical Committee 176 in charge of the ISO 9000 “family” held his annual meeting in the Azores last November. The major standards (9001 & 9004) being published recently, the work concentrated on preparation steps for the future evolutions, with tasks groups dedicated to subjects such as revision of the High Level Structure (HLS) common to all management systems standards, or future concepts to be integrated in the ISO 9001 – to which Dr Didier Blanc, Director of ViaSyst, participated.

Revision of the ISO High Level Structure for Management Systems

ISO published more than 40 management system standards based on the common structure and text of the so called “High Level Structure” (HLS). ISO 9001 is one of those.

Based on the experience gained through this wide application, ISO decided to launch a revision process of the HLS. Representative of all technical committees holding a MS standard based on the HLS have been appointed to the ad hoc task force.

A first meeting is planned for early 2019. The technical work shall be finished by the end of 2020, and the integration of the new HLS in future revisions of MS standards will start after publication around May 2021.

It is too early at this stage to know how deep the HLS revision will be, but for sure it will include some clarification related to interpretation issues raised by experts or users during drafting or implementing.

Potential future concepts to be integrated in ISO 9001

Anticipating the future ISO 9001 revision which might be launched in a 5 years horizon, a task force has been appointed to select and describe concepts that could potentially be incorporated in a future version of ISO 9001 (or 9004 and any other standard within the ISO 9000 family).

Dr Didier Blanc, Director of ViaSyst, is part of this new task force.

The work plan is to have a final version available as outcome of the next plenary in November 2019.

Particular attention will be paid to concepts that will impact the future quality management due to the dynamic technological and economic changes. So far, the concept areas selected to be further described are the following:

  • Change management
  • People aspects
  • Organizational culture
  • Customer experience
  • Technologies for information
  • Integration of management/business systems
  • Knowledge management
  • Ethics & integrity

For any question or follow-up on these topics within the ISO 9001 family, please contact info@viasyst.com or didier.blanc@viasyst.com

ViaSyst Team.