ISO 9001:2008 Published and Available for Purchase

Like all of ISO’s more than 17,000 standards, ISO 9001 is periodically reviewed to ensure that itis maintained at the state of the art. ISO 9001:2008 was published on November 13, 2008 and will replace the year 2000 version of the standard. It may be purchased from ISO at www.iso.org, ANSI at ansi.org and ASQ at asq.org.

Transition Expectations

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and the IAF (International Accreditation Forum) have agreed an implementation plan to ensure a smooth migration of accredited certification to ISO 9001:2008, after consultation with international groupings representing quality system or auditor certification bodies, and industry users of ISO 9001 certification services.

ISO 9001:2008 does not contain any new requirements.

They have recognized that ISO 9001:2008 introduces no new requirements. ISO 9001:2008 only introduces clarifications to the existing requirements of ISO 9001:2000 based on eight years of experience of implementing the standard world wide with about one million certificates issued in 170 countries to date. It also introduces changes intended to improve consistency with ISO 14001:2004.

The agreed implementation plan in relation to accredited certification is therefore the following:

Accredited certification to the ISO 9001:2008 shall not be granted until the publication of ISO 9001:2008 as an International Standard. Certification of conformity to ISO 9001:2008 and/or national equivalents shall only be issued after official publication of ISO 9001:2008 (which should take place before the end of 2008) and after a routine surveillance or recertification audit against ISO 9001:2008.

Platinum's Approach

Platinum will contact our clients prior to each surveillance assessment to determine if the organization would like to upgrade to the 2008 Standard.

Upgrading will not result in any additional costs to the organization as long as the organization does not request unique upgrade audit.

Organizations are expected to have obtained the new requirements and be aware of the reivisons and clarifications as well as to have made appropriate changes to processes and documentation. This understanding will be verified on site during regularly scheduled audits. Please call us if you have any questions about transitioning or the assessment process.