I would say that business planning, and by that I guess we are talking of 3 or 5 year strategic plans, are the output of the management review process at the very highest level.
Personally I would state this to an auditor as being my 'management review' in terms of ISO9001 compliance. Now I know inexperienced auditors will get all shirty if they cannot see that the written quality policy statement hasnt been reviewed in this process, but that is largely ISO9001 compliance auditing trivia.
You may have a secondary level managment review when you talk about things going wrong, the traditional approach if you like, but really that should just be a feed into the main strategic business planning process.
The Business Plan is very important, in that it sets the strategic goals and objectives for the whole business, as best it can forecast. It usually is not produced DURING a Management Review meeting, so it would not be an output. If you want to make it during a MR meeting, that would be OK. Then it would be an output...but what does it matter?
Management Review meetings and other management meetings are not necessarily the same thing. A Management Review meeting is designed to periodically review whether objectives and targets are being met, and the expectations the internal QMS sets forth are being performed effectively. It is not an ordinary business meeting, and certainly should not be a daily production meeting. Because it is different, and has a specific purpose for review and planning, it should have a specific and different agenda.
Because the MR meeting should have a specific purpose and agenda, the standard lists, as a minimum, the inputs and outputs that must be considered. It would appear, maybe in previous standards, some people's meetings were not focused and did not cover these required items.
Since we auditors must audit whether you are meeting the standard at a minimum, us "inexperienced, 'shirty' auditors," (and even a few of us experienced ones), must review that these required inputs are reviewed. That includes the darn Quality Policy, even though we don't expect to see too many changes. But gee, it would be a good opportunity to remind the managers what they supposedly COMMITTED to work to...
A MR meeting (MRM) should be reviewing the performance of the
past, based on metrics, against the defined objectives. It should be discussing the
current affairs, particularly these objectives that are not being met, and making course adjustments for the
future, to ensure that the objectives are achieved. There you have past, present and future in one strategy meeting.
The meeting may propose changes to certain objectives or items in the business plan, which would be perfect. That is the intent of this "review" meeting.
And,
all the other meetings that managers do are intended to run the day-to-day details of the business.