Background of ISO standards revision, brief on different stages of ISO standards development, Current status of ISO 9008:2015 and ISO 14001:2015.

REVISION OF ISO STANDARDS

• All ISO standards are reviewed every five years to establish if a revision is required to keep it current and relevant for the marketplace.
• Both ISO 9001 & ISO 14001 are expected to be revised in 2015.
• The new version will follow a new, higher level structure to make it easier to use in conjunction with other management system standards, with increased importance given to risk.
• Organizations are granted a three-year transition period after the revision has been published to migrate their quality management system to the new edition of the standard.
• The expiry date of certifications to ISO 9001:2008 & ISO 14001:2004 issued during the transition period needs to correspond to the end of the three year transition period.

Stages for Standards development:

There are six stages in any standards development

• Proposal stage (10)
• Preparatory stage (20)
• Committee stage (30)
• Enquiry stage (40)
• Approval stage (50)
• Publication stage (60)

Proposal stage (10)- Obligatory

• This first step is to confirm that a new International Standard in the subject area is really needed.
• A new work item proposal (NWIP) is submitted to the committee for vote. The electronic balloting portal should be used for the vote.
• The person being nominated as project leader is named on the Form.
• If there are possible complications around copyright, patents or conformity assessment, they should be raised at this early stage.
• This stage can be skipped for revisions and amendments to ISO standards that are already published

Preparatory stage (20)- Optional

• Usually a working group (WG) is set up by the parent committee to prepare the working draft (WD). The WG is made up of experts and a Convener (usually the Project leader).
• During this stage, experts continue to look out for issues around copyright, patents and conformity assessment.
• Successive WDs can be circulated until the experts are satisfied that they have developed the best solution they can. The draft is then forwarded to the WG's parent committee who will decide which stage to go to next (Committee stage or Enquiry stage).
• The ISO/TC platform can be used for sharing documents at this and other stages of standards development

Committee stage (30)- Optional

• During this stage the draft from the working group is shared with the members of the parent committee.
• If the committee uses this stage, the committee draft (CD) is circulated to the members of the committee who then comment and vote using the Electronic Balloting Portal.
• Successive CDs can be circulated until consensus is reached on the technical content

Enquiry stage (40)- Obligatory

• The Draft International Standard (DIS) is submitted to ISO Central Secretariat by the committee secretary.
• It is then circulated to all ISO members who get 3 months to vote and comment on it.
• The DIS is approved if a two-thirds of the Full members of the TC/SC are in favor and not more than one-quarter of the total number of votes cast are negative
• If the DIS is approved, the project goes straight to publication. However, the committee leadership can decide to include the FDIS stage if needed.

Approval stage (50)- Optional

• This stage will be automatically skipped if the DIS has been approved
• However, if the draft has been significantly revised following comments at the DIS stage (even if the DIS has been approved) committees can decide to carry out this stage.
• If this stage is used, the Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) is submitted to ISO/Central Secretariat (ISO/CS) by the committee secretary.
• The FDIS is then circulated to all ISO member for a two-month vote.
• The standard is approved if a two-thirds majority of the Full members of the TC/SC is in favor and not more than one-quarter of the total number of votes cast are negative.

Publication stage (60)- Obligatory

• At this stage the secretary submits the final document for publication. Only editorial corrections are made to the final text.
• It is published by the ISO Central Secretariat as an International Standard.
• Committee secretaries and project leaders get a two-week sign off period before the standard is published

Status of ISO 9001:2015

1. Current Status: 4 stages completed,
2. Right now in the 5th stage (Approval Stage)

• The ISO subcommittee responsible for revising this standard is ISO/TC 176/SC2.
• DIS voting received nearly 90% approval in Nov’2014, however the committee received over 3000 comments with suggestions on possible improvements.
• This subcommittee has successfully resolved all the comments received during the DIS vote.
• Two months FDIS ballot is initiated as on 9th July’15 among ISO member countries.
• FDIS voting results expected to be known by 9th September’15.
• Publication of ISO 9001:2015 is expected in September’15.

ISO 9001:2015 Transition timeline

Status of ISO 14001:2015

1. Current Status: 4 stages completed,
2. Right now in the 5th stage (Approval Stage)

• The ISO subcommittee responsible for revising this standard is ISO/TC 207/SC1.
• DIS voting received over 92% approval.
• This subcommittee has successfully resolved all the comments received during the DIS vote.
• Two months FDIS ballot is initiated as on 1st July’15 among ISO member countries.
• FDIS voting results expected to be known by 4th September’15.
• Publication of ISO 14001:2015 is expected on 16th September’15.

ISO 14001:2015 Transition timeline