ISO 9001 Case Study

2.2 Milestones of standard development

The United Kingdom had an important role in developing management system standards. Internalization of BS 5750 and BS 7750 standards to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 lead to a common concept and definitions worldwide (Rothery, 1995). The management approach of the ISO 9001 standard gave the basis both of standardizing of new scopes (occupational safety, information security, food safety etc.) and industry-specific quality management systems (e.g. ISO/TS16949, TL 9000). Due to the diversified development of the latter group, Koczor (2001) calls them “X9000”. Globalization is a key factor in the diffusion:

- the globalization supported the diffusion of the standards (and nationalization procedure promoted the better

The focus points of the evolution of ISO 9001 can be summarized as Table 1. and Figure 1 shows.

Table 1: Focus points of developing ISO 9001

Year Novelty

1987 The first international system of requirements in the field; focus on quality inspection and control.

1994 The comprehensive quality assurance standard for producers. Requirements for service-oriented organizations in a separated standard. Introduction of the requirements related to preventive actions.

2000 The standard for quality management. A new approach based on system- and process orientation. Unified requirements independently of size and activity.

2008 Refinement of the terminology related to managing organizations in a supply chain and other practical expectations. More focus on harmonization with other management system standards.

2015 Establishing risk-based thinking instead of preventive actions. The focus of the management system spreads from customer to the needs and expectations of interested parties.

Source: own compilation

2.3 Results of the recent

Switching to the ISO 9001:2000 standard was a serious challenge for European organizations in the early 2000s (because of the 3-year certification period the impact is delayed). Such deceleration is not to observe in East Asia and Pacific. Next, probably the economic crisis in 2008 had a visible impact on applications, although the strength of this impact is different by countries. The number of ISO 9001 certifications in Europe apparently decrease, East Asia and Pacific are on a new development path.

Checking the industrial distribution of the certified quality management systems (39 defined industries included) in the world, 70.2% of ISO 9001 certifications is concentrated in the top 10 industries (Figure 4).

The list includes basic metal & fabricated metal products (13.2%), electrical and optical equipment (9.5%), construction (8.5%), wholesale & retail trade; repairs of motor vehicles, motorcycles & personal & household goods (8.4%), machinery and equipment (7.1%), other services (6.4%), rubber and plastic products (5.1%), engineering services (4.6%), chemicals, chemical products & fibres (3.7%) and information technology