Since the inception of the ISO 9001:2000 revision it was clear that this version of the standard was so robust and coherent that more people were able to understand its tremendous value and potential for improving a company’s overall processes rather than being a mere documentation guide.

In fact the standard was so well written and presented, that it really forced companies to look into their own processes in order to construct a quality management system that was indeed applicable to the organization and that will help their very own business. So why did the ISO technical committee decided to update the standard then?

The main objective of the change was to normalize the interpretation on the standard when read or discussed by different people. Review of the standard is required to be made every 4 years or so, however in 2004, the committee did not think there were any changes necessary. After that, it became obvious little by little than in some cases, interpretation of some areas of the standard, could vary from person to person. That is, if 3 people read the standard, their interpretation in some of the clauses would be slightly different. So the committee changed a few words here and there, as well as added more notes and explanation to normalize the interpretation. Changes to the actual requirements were not made, but rather some words changes were done and more explanation-mostly in the form of notes- were given. The goal as mentioned earlier was such that if you put those 3 people to read the standard, they will all achieve an interpretation that was very similar indeed.

So if you read the 2008 version of the IO 9001 standard now, you may say ”Ah! That’s what they wanted! And that’s what I have been doing all along”. In that case, there is nothing for you to do or change, because you probably had already interpreted the requirements that way. Or you may say “Oh! Is that what they wanted?” In this case, you may realize that you have some work to do, given the additional explanation.

So hopefully you do not have much to update, but if you do, well is all part of the continual improvement efforts and the never ending goal of achieving world class quality.