Standard under review

No matter whether they are big groups of companies or small and medium-sized businesses, enterprises in Germany and worldwide must adapt to innovation: the ISO 9001 quality management standard is currently under review. It is one of the most important and frequently used standards in the world. In Germany alone, 52 000 organisations use ISO 9001. For many companies, the review is relevant even now, as evidenced by a survey of 400 German companies conducted by the German Society for Quality (DGQ) together with the market research company Konzept & Markt. 45 per cent of the quality managers surveyed said they were already studying the review. 47 per cent expect that adaptation of the standard will form the focus of their work. The review is being driven by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which comprises over 100 national organisations. In the review process, the DGQ represents the European Organisation for Quality (EOQ) and is helping to design the new standard in the responsible committee. "A quality management system is not without purpose. It must offer specific added value," says Michael Weubel, head of the DGQ's central regional office in Frankfurt am Main. The new ISO 9001 is a milestone for this and enables the companies "to make their operations future-proof," continues Weubel. The essential features have already been established. On the whole, the new ISO should be much more practically oriented. To achieve this, says Weubel, it is important for companies to adapt their quality management to individual situations and also take external factors into consideration. Companies will have more freedom to decide how quality management tasks are organised, because the position of the person responsible for QM is no longer defined in the standard.

According to the DGQ survey, around two thirds of the quality managers surveyed (59 per cent) expect managers to be able to fulfil their responsibilities better with the new standard. In addition, process orientation and risk management will be strengthened under the new standard. Companies can thus expect the new standard to be easier and more flexible to apply. The importance of practical quality management is clear from another statistic: for nine out of ten respondents…