When you're new to the world of quality management and ISO certification, it's easy to feel a little confused by some of of the associated jargon. For instance, you probably know that ISO 9001 is the globally-recognised standard for quality management systems, but perhaps you've heard people using more complicated-sounding terms like 'ISO 9001:2008' and now you're feeling a bit lost again.
If so, we hope this simple guide makes things a little bit clearer.
ISO 9001 is updated periodically.
The standards collectively known as ISO 9001 are constantly evolving, and as a result, ISO 9001 is overhauled every so often in order to reflect the latest advancements and the current state of the market. Once a new version of ISO 9001 is brought into effect, organisations who were certified under the previous version usually have a few years to transition to the new one.
ISO 9001:2008 is an outdated version of ISO 9001.
ISO 9001:2008 (itself the successor to ISO 9001:2000) was rendered obsolete in September 2015 by the newly-introduced ISO 9001:2015 standard.
- If you already hold ISO 9001:2008 certification, you have until the end of September 2018 to migrate to ISO 9001:2015.
- If you do not hold any ISO 9001 certification, there's no need to worry about ISO 9001:2008 - you should focus on getting certified according to the requirements laid out by ISO 9001:2015.
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Read more on this topic: ISO 9001:2008 vs. ISO 9001:2015
