Update of Quality Management System Standard: E-Alert January 2009
April 2010
Construction
The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) has recently conducted a review of the ISO 9000 suite of standards – the world's most widely used quality management system standard. This review was based on an examination of user experience over the last 8 years and focussed primarily on resolving a number of interpretation and consistency issues associated with ISO 9001:2000.
As a result of this review, an updated version of ISO 9001 (ISO 9001:2008) was published in November 2008. ISO 9001:2008 contains no new requirements from the 2000 version, but clarifies certain points and introduces changes intended to improve consistency with the environmental management system standard, ISO 14001:2004.
Eleven new notes have been added to provide more clarification and common points of confusion have been better defined. Outsourcing (which may be relevant, for example, in the case of facilities management contracts) is one area where significant clarification has been added, with the incorporation of three additional notes to help the user with interpretation. For example, in several places the term "product quality" has been replaced with "conformity to product requirements" to put the emphasis on conformity and make it clear what the ISO intends by the requirement.
Whilst construction industry participants are unlikely to need to make major changes to their quality management systems, the ISO recommends organisations get acquainted with the contents of the new ISO 9001:2008 and analyse whether modifications to their quality management systems may be required in light of clarifications provided in ISO 9001:2008 (see
http://www.iso.org/iso/home.htm).
ISO has emphasised that the new ISO 9001:2008 does not require any specific reassessment for certification, however construction industry participants should now consider whether new contracts need to specify that quality management systems are to comply with ISO 9001:2008.
For further information, please contact Andrew Chapman, Mal Fielding, Greg Campbell, Josh Marchant, Peter Meades, Paul Woods or Bronwyn Weir.