ISO 9001 new edition released

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) has just published ISO 9001:2008, the latest edition of the International Standard used by organizations in 175 countries as the framework for their quality management systems (QMS).

ISO 9001:2008, Quality management system - Requirements, is the fourth edition of the standard first published in 1987 and which has become the global benchmark for providing assurance about the ability to satisfy quality requirements and to enhance customer satisfaction in supplier-customer relationships.

The new standards is now available at the Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI), which is the member body of ISO in Sri Lanka.

ISO 9001:2008 contains no new requirements compared to the 2000 edition, which it replaces. It provides clarifications to the existing requirements of ISO 9001:2000 based on eight years' experience of implementing the standard worldwide and introduces changes intended to improve consistency with the environmental management system standard, ISO 14001:2004.

All ISO standards - currently more than 17,400 are periodically reviewed. Several factors combine to render a standard out of date, such as technological evolution, new methods and materials, new quality and safety requirements, or questions of interpretation and application.

To take account of such factors and to ensure that ISO standards are maintained at the state-of-the-art, ISO has a rule requiring them to be periodically reviewed and a decision taken to confirm, withdraw or revise the documents.

ISO has also developed an introduction and support package of documents explaining what the differences are between ISO 9001:2008 and the year 2000 version, why and what they mean for users.

Although certification of conformity to ISO 9001 is not a requirement of the standard, it is frequently used in both public and private sectors to increase confidence in the products and services provided by certified organizations, between partners in business-to-business relations, in the selection of supplies in supply chains and in the right to tender for procurement contracts.

Up to the end of December 2007, at least 951,486 ISO 9001:2000 certificates had been issued in 175 countries.

These documents are available on the ISO Web site (www.iso.org).