Overview of the new ISO 9001:2015 standard and challenges ahead

Abstract

Many South African organizations including those in tourism and hospitality sectors are aware about the launching of the revised ISO 9001:2015 and are concerned as to how the changes will affect them. Some of the reasons for these changes are due to the changing quality systems and technology, a more dynamic business environment, decrease emphasis on documented procedures, move to a culture of risk management, cater for the service industries, promote integration with other standards and ultimately increase value for the organization.Articles in various editions of Quality Progress have indicated that the revised standard will have ten major sections, seven principles of quality, simpler terminology, a more generic format to allow the alignment with other standards and attractive to service centered organizations. The implementation of the standard will include such processes as for risk management, change management, information management, innovation management and strategy management hence moving the quality management system towards a business management system. Although the standard may appear to allow more flexibility inits implementation there will be many managerial and implementation challenges for organizations and their quality practitioners. There is a sense that the standard is moving away from management responsibility to leadership accountability. This article provides an overview of the new standard and provides information on some of the challenges that may be faced.