The new version of ISO 9001

In an economic world where performance, responsibility and risk management have become inseparable, companies seek to demonstrate the robustness of their organisations.

To ensure their sustainability and competitiveness, ISO 9001 is one of the most widely recognised specifications: this standard is regularly revised to take into account societal developments in particular.

As your trusted certification partner, we closely monitor the developments that are shaping the future of management systems.

While the 10-chapter structure remains unchanged, the conceptual changes are profound. The new standard responds directly to the major challenges of our time.

1. Leadership as the driving force behind culture and ethics
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This is perhaps the most significant change: Chapter 5 (Leadership) no longer simply calls for ‘commitment’ from management. It will now require ‘promoting and demonstrating a culture of quality and ethical behaviour’.

What this means: management will have to embody these values. Ethics, integrity and transparency become auditable components of the QMS. The aim is to move from an organisation that has a QMS to an organisation that is a quality organisation.

2. Sustainability becomes a quality issue
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Following the 2024 climate amendment, the standard will formally incorporate this issue.

• Chapter 4.1 (Context): the organisation must determine whether issues arise from climate change.
• Chapter 4.2 (Interested parties): these may have requirements relating to climate change.

What this means: the objective is not to transform your QMS into ISO 14001. It is to analyse how climate change may impact your ability to provide compliant products and services (e.g. supply chain disruptions due to extreme events, resource shortages).

3. Building organisational resilience
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Drawing lessons from recent global crises (pandemic, logistical disruptions), the standard reinforces the risk-based approach to include anything that could disrupt your ability to provide compliant products or services.

These situations must now be included in risk analysis in the same way as other operational issues.

What this means: your QMS must be designed to remain effective even when conditions deteriorate. This requires you to verify the robustness of your processes, key dependencies and operating methods.

4. The digital imperative: data and cybersecurity
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The standard emphasises that changing ways of working (remote working, digital tools, innovative solutions) can alter your control over your infrastructure and introduce new risks.
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When your activities rely on technological resources, their unavailability or failure can affect the compliance of your products or services.

What this means: you must integrate these technological issues into your QMS. Without creating specific cybersecurity requirements, the standard reminds us that digital infrastructure is now one of the elements to be considered in order to ensure the control and continuity of your processes.

While structural changes may seem ‘moderate’, conceptual changes (culture, ethics, climate, cybersecurity) are profound and take time.

Establishing a new culture takes much longer than simply updating documentation. Organisations that wait until the last minute will create a bottleneck and risk a stressful race against time to train their teams and adapt their processes.

The audit of tomorrow: ‘Auditor 2.0’

As a certification body, we are preparing our teams for this change. ‘Auditor 2.0’ will have to assess ‘soft’ concepts: leadership effectiveness, the reality of ethical culture, the relevance of climate risk analysis, and the impact of digital risks. This is a guarantee of added value for your certification audit.