9001 Council - Information and advice to facilitate your ISO 9001 implementation.

www.9001council.org/

The current revision:
ISO 9001:2008

According to the rules of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO - the publisher of the ISO standards), the ISO 9001 standard undergoes review and revision every 6-8 years.

In the past, the ISO 9001 standard was first revised in 1994 and then underwent a major revision in 2000. In November 2008, ISO published the current revision, which is called ISO 9001:2008.


What is new in
ISO 9001:2008?

The changes in ISO 9001:2008 are relatively minor and of little concern to most companies.

Compared to the ISO 9001:2000 standard, ISO 9001:2008 does not contain any new requirements nor does it contain changes to any of the requirements of ISO 9001:2000; also, it does not change the intent of ISO 9001:2000. Further, the structure and outline of ISO 9001:2008 is identical to that of ISO 9001:2000.

ISO 9001:2008 only introduces clarifications to the existing requirements of ISO 9001:2000 based on eight years of experience of implementing the standard worldwide with over one million certificates issued in over 175 countries to date. It also introduces some changes to the wording intended to improve consistency with ISO 14001 (the environmental management standard).

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) explains one of the reasons for the limited changes in the 2008 version as follows: “A key factor in the development of ISO 9001:2008 was to limit the impact of changes on users.”

According to ISO, the benefits of the changes to the wording in ISO 9001:2008 are as follows:

Easier to use

Clearer language

Easier to translate into other languages

Better compatibility with the environmental management standard ISO 14001


How does the 2008 revision affect me?

Since the changes in the newest version of ISO 9001 are only minor, the impact of the 2008 revision on you will also be minor:

If your company has ISO 9001:2000 accreditation:

No changes to the ISO 9001:2000 management system and its documentation are necessary.

ISO 9001:2000 certificates remained valid for up to two years from publication of ISO 9001:2008 (until November 13, 2010). If you still haven't received an update to your ISO 9001:2000 certificate, you should ask your registrar to issue you an ISO 9001:2008 certificate now or after your next periodic surveillance audit.

If your company is currently implementing ISO 9001 using old ISO 9001:2000 materials:

You may want to consider purchasing the new ISO 9001:2008 standard because it is easier to read and understand, thus making your ISO 9001 implementation easier.

If you are basing your ISO 9001 documentation on templates, you may want to contact your provider and ask for an upgrade to the 2008 version.

All ISO 9001:2000 materials remain useful since the changes in the 2008 revision were minimal.

If you are planning on implementing ISO 9001:

Be sure that all materials you purchase are the current ISO 9001:2008 materials.

If you are planning on using templates for your ISO 9001 documentation (see our section on Templates), you should select a template supplier who has revised and updated their templates to ISO 9001:2008 because the wording is easier to understand; in addition, any provider still selling the old ISO 9001:2000 version may lack in other areas as well.


When is the next revision due?

We expect the next revision of ISO 9001 to be published in 2016.

As of now, there is no information on the extend and nature of changes (if any) in the next revision. We will update this information as soon as the technical committee in charge of ISO 9001 revisions publishes its first draft.