ISO 9000 2015 Final Draft Edition

ISO 9000, “Quality management systems – Fundamentals and vocabulary,” is on track to be released as a new 2015 Edition in September.  For those of you who would like to take a look at the final language now in preparation for upcoming changes, the ISO 9000 Final Draft is available.

One of the first questions people have is “What is a final draft?”  A final draft is the finished standard as written by the authoring committee.  At the final draft stage, it is submitted to the voting population of the standards developer for acceptance or rejection.  Once the vote has taken place, if it is successful the draft is handed over to the publishing arm of the organization for release.

Is a final draft an authorized standard?  Actually no.  Since it is the document that is submitted for a final vote by an association at large, it does not have any legal weight.  Only the accepted version will be authorized.  So for example,  you will not use the ISO 9000 2015 final draft as a replacement for the actual 4th Edition that should be publicly available September 23, 2015.

What is in the ISO 9000 2015 Final Draft?  The ISO 9000 itself is an overview document, with information on quality management principles and terms and definitions that support the proper use of the ISO 9001 requirements document.  So you must use ISO 9001 in order to register as “ISO 9000” compliant.  However, during your preparation phase the use of the ISO 9000 will provide you with a background on quality to support your implementation of the quality management system.

Since there are significant changes both to management systems in general (harmonization of concepts and standard formats) as well as to the upcoming ISO 9001 2015, it stands to reason that the overview document ISO 9000 would need technical changes as well.

In the review of the fundamental concepts and principles, you’ll find important guidance on such topics as rationale, key benefits, and possible actions.  Further there are some new concepts in the ISO 9001 2015 like documented information.  You’ll find good definitions of these new terms in the ISO 9000 2015 final draft.

Who should be using the ISO 9000 2015?  For anyone with an interest in the quality management scheme (ISO 9001 and it’s variants) or in management systems in general (ISO 14001, ISO 22000, and so on), the ISO 9000 is a useful publication.  So both suppliers and customers who are interested in quality or certification, standards developers,  and those involved in quality training should be using this standard.

Why should I get a copy of the ISO 9000 2015 final draft?  If you want more information on the changes to the quality management concepts in order to facilitate the transition to the new ISO 9001 2015 Edition that should be released in September, the ISO 9000 final draft can be of assistance.

Why would I want to wait for the ISO 9000 2015 Edition instead of purchasing the ISO 9000 2015 final draft?  You  may prefer to wait if you only want to purchase one copy of the new material.  If you purchase the final draft, you will need to buy the authorized edition when it comes out in September.  Also, you will have up to three years in order to make the transition from the old version of the ISO 9001 to the new one.  So you may feel that there is no urgent need to get started already.

Where should I buy my copy of my ISO standards, drafts and final drafts?  ISO publications are covered by copyright and must be purchased from authorized distributors like Document Center Inc.  You can order copies in both paper format and for pdf download at the Document Center webstore, www.document-center.com.  Here’s a link directly to the order page for the ISO 9000 2015 Final Draft.  If you’d rather have multi-user access, try our Standards Online subscription service.  All ISO standards can be included.  For more information, contact our staff by phone (650-591-7600), fax (650-591-7617) or email (info@document-center.com).  We’ve been working with ISO since the 1990’s.  Make us your Standards Experts!