By September 15, 2018, organizations certified in compliance with UNI EN ISO 9001:2008 and UNI EN ISO 14001:2004 are requested to be re-certified to the 2015 versions of the most widespread ISO standards in the world (about one and a half million companies, almost 200 thousand in Italy).
Companies that carry out surveillance or renewal audits without aligning themselves with the new standards, would incur higher costs because they need to be submitted to another surveillance audit for the 2015 version of the standard by September 2018.
Furthermore, as of March 15, 2018, certification bodies must conduct initial, surveillance or recertification audits to the new standards. IAF (international Accreditation Forum) has passed this resolution during the General Assembly held in Vancouver the last october.
Nowadays companies have to face different challenges than those of a few decades ago. Furthermore, more aware consumers, with broad access to higher information and expectations, require an ever-increasing level of quality.
UNI EN ISO 9001:2015 and UNI EN ISO 14001:2015 standards are intended to improve an organization’s management and their purpose is to support companies in positioning on a global market that is becoming increasingly diversified and complex.
ISO 9001:2015 is an international standard, implemented in Italy by UNI, the national standardization body, which sets the standard requirements for quality mangement systems. UNI EN ISO 9001 can be applied to any organization, large or small, regardless of the field of activity. The main principle is the continuous search for improvement. This standard is fundamental, considering that over a million companies and organizations in over 170 countries, have a certified quality management system.
The new ISO 9001 promotes enhanced leadership involvement in the management system, introduces Risk Based Thinking and aligns the quality management system policy and objectives with the strategy of the organization. It supports organizations in achieving and maintaining their long-term objectives and in consistently providing products and services that satisfy customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.
ISO 14001:2015 also is an international standard, implemented in Italy by UNI, which sets the standard requirements for environmental mangement systems.
The new edition of UNI EN ISO 14001 focuses particularly on the Lifecycle Thinking for the certification of the management system, taking into consideration the economic, environmental and social impacts associated with product design and development during each stage of the life cycle.