Introduction to ISO 9001:2015 QMS Standard And Its Latest Version
ISO 9001:2015 Standard is the world highest followed and implemented management system standard. Here we are discussing some of the very basic / introductory things about this standard. Before moving forward let us first understand what a “management system” is and why we need it.
Management System:
A management system is system which is designed to run a company. It is a set of policies and procedures which are designed and documented to run a company.
Why we need a “management system”?
Imagine you are going to a restaurant . You entered from the main gate entrance, went to the counter and order your food, pay for it and hold the tray and come and sit on your table. The next day you go there and you are asked to use the back door, this time you are asked to not approach to counter but to sit on your table, the waiter will come towards you for taking order. The third day you went there again and you are asked that today only those people are being served who have done their reservation the previous day. And that’s it. I am pretty sure as a dissatisfied customer you will never visit that restaurant again.
Why? Because they are not systematic, they are working on trial and error basis, one day they are following some differ practice and other day they change again. It is obvious, they don’t have a “system of work” or we can say they don’t have any “management system”.
For a business to smoothly run, you need a “management system”!
What is quality management system?
Now that we have understood the term “management system”, let’s move on to understand the meaning of quality management system which is abbreviated as QMS.
But before understanding QMS first understand the definition of quality!
Quality means “fulfilling the requirements of customers”. Alternatively quality is also defined as “fit for use” OR “fit for intended use” OR “satisfaction of the needs and expectation of customers”
So here we can say that, the quality management system means a “set of process and procedures which are designed such that to fulfil the customer requirements”
What is ISO 9001:2015?
ISO 9001:2015 standard is the international standard which describes the requirements in order to run a successful quality management system. ISO 9001:2015 standard is the fifth revision of the series, it was first issued in 1987 as ISO 9001:1987 since then it has been continuously updated and revised every 6 to 8 years and now 2015 revision is the current version.
When the next version will be released?
Many people ask me that if the ISO 9001:2020 is released? They ask this because ISO 9001 standard is bound to be updated every 5 years. Right now more than 9 years passed since 2015 version is released. However, there are some unconfirmed news that the next version might be ISO 9001:2025 with minimal changes or no big changes.
Thanks for reading.
Further in the next blog we will discuss following:
- What is ISO
- Why we need ISO standard
- Introduction and elaboration of ISO 9001
- Benefits of ISO 9001 implementation
- Cost of implementation of ISO 9001
- And more
