Standards Australia releases Interim 9000-2000 series

[James Gutherson]

FYI, a press release from Standards Australia: http://www.9000-2000.com/

News Release - 1999-11-05
Australian business the first to benefit from new approach to Quality
Business and industry are set to benefit from Australia's leading role in the development of the next generation of international Quality Standards.

The 2000 revisions of the well-known ISO 9000 family of international Quality Standards are currently at Draft International Standard (DIS) stage. The final Standards are due to be published late next year.

The good news is that organizations do not need to wait another twelve months to begin applying the new approach to quality to their own businesses. Later this month, Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand will publish interim versions of ISO 9000, ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 based on the DIS documents.

The decision to publish these documents as Interim Australian/New Zealand Standards was made by both Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand in order to bring the new directions in quality management to both markets, and indeed the world, as soon as possible. Organizations will benefit by becoming familiar with the intent and requirements of the new Standards.

"Why wait another twelve months? We can provide this information now," says John Owen, Standards Australia's Director of International Management Systems and the ISO Committee Deputy Project Leader for the ISO 9000 revisions.

"These new Interim Australian/New Zealand Standards will be technically identical to the ISO Draft International Standards. Our experience has shown that there is little, if any, technical change from the DIS stage to the final publication," John Owen says.

In an effort to encourage organizations to make the transition to the new ISO 9000 Standards as soon as possible, the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) has advised that certification body assessments may begin prior to publication of the final ISO documents.

By publishing these Interim Standards now, Standards Australia hopes to facilitate the transition process. The intention is to enable Australian organizations to be ready for the changeover to the new requirements earlier than would otherwise have been the case. By giving organizations an additional twelve months preparation time, business practices can be adjusted and made ready to meet the new Standards when they are published.

There are significant differences between the 1994 version of these Standards and the new enhanced 2000 editions. The structure of the new edition has changed - it now adopts a process model which is much more relevant to the way businesses actually function. Encouragingly, feedback from around the world is extremely positive.

The really good news is that the documentation requirements of the new Standards are considerably simplified and reduced.

Monitoring and addressing customer satisfaction is a significant feature of the new Standard. Organizations will need to focus much more on their interaction with customers.

Additionally, there are now requirements in the Standard to make continual efforts to improve quality management with a view to improving products or services. Another feature is improved compatibility with ISO 14000.

According to John Owen, now is the perfect opportunity for Australian industry to embrace the changes and start putting the new process-oriented model quality management system into place in their own organizations.

"Australia took this proactive approach with ISO 14001 and ISO 14004 and it proved to be enormously successful. By adopting the DIS documents and publishing them in Australia as Interim Standards, we delivered information which allowed Australian organizations to become much more familiar with these Standards long before the rest of the world which resulted in greater readiness for implementation," he said.

The well-known guide for small business, HB 66, has also been revised and republished by Standards Australia as an Interim Handbook, HB 66(Int):2000, ISO 9000 Guide For Small Businesses, in line with the new Draft International Standards. The previous edition was adopted by ISO and was extremely popular around the world. However, at this stage ISO has not included it in the range of publications for 2000 revision. To overcome this situation, Standards Australia has prepared the new Interim revision of HB66 so that our customers have immediate access to vital information in relation to the new Standard.

HB 150(Int):2000, The ISO 9001 Comparison: 2000 versus 1994, is a valuable new guide which provides a detailed clause-by-clause comparison of the new Interim Standard, AS/NZS ISO 9001(Int):2000, Quality Management Systems - Requirements, with the 1994 version. This Handbook gives a broad outline of the concepts behind the current revisions and then goes on to show exactly where the changes and differences are, as well as providing a commentary on what the effects are expected to be.

These new Interim Australian/New Zealand Standards will have a life of up to two years. If the final Standards are published, as expected, prior to November 2001, the Interim Standards will be withdrawn and the full ISO Standards will be published as AS/NZS ISO Standards.

For certification purposes, the transition period for changeover to the new Standards will be up to two years, after publication of the final ISO Standards.

The new titles are:

AS/NZS ISO 9000(Int):2000, Quality management systems - Fundamentals and vocabulary
AS/NZS ISO 9001(Int):2000, Quality management systems - Requirements
AS/NZS ISO 9004(Int):2000, Quality management systems - Guidelines for performance improvement
HB 66(Int):2000, ISO 9000 Guide For Small Businesses
HB 150(Int):2000, The ISO 9000 comparison: 2000 versus 1994.
These Interim Standards and Handbooks will be available from 15 November 1999.

An Australia-wide series of half-day seminars on the new revisions of ISO 9000:2000 are scheduled to begin later this month. The seminars will cover:

Major differences between the 1994 and 2000 versions
Changes in the structure of AS/NZS ISO 9001 (Int):2000
What you should do if you are already certified to the 1994 edition
Improvements available in AS/NZS ISO 9004(Int):2000.
For more information on these seminars, please contact Standards Australia Professional Services on 1300 65 65 29, or email seminars@standards.com.au