ISO 9004:2009

The latest draft of ISO 9004 has received broad approval and the final draft of this International Standard (FDIS) is due to be released at the end of August 2009 with the publication of the revised standard in October or November 2009.

ISO 9004 has a new title "Managing for the sustained success of an organisation - A quality management approach" and is shorter than its predecessor, ISO 9004:2000 at 44 pages compared to 56. This reduction is in part due to the removal of the ISO 9001 text that appeared at the start of each section. Although ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 are still "a consistent pair" of standards, ISO 9004 no longer has the same clause by clause naming as ISO 9001. This helps to emphasise that it is not a guide to ISO 9001.

The contents of ISO 9004 (at the draft stage) are:

1. Scope
2. Normative references
3. Terms and definitions
4. Managing for the sustained success of an organisation
5. Strategy amd policy formulation, planning and deployment
6. Resource management
7. Process management
8. Monitoring, measurement, analysis and review
9. Improvement, innovation and learning
Annex A - Self-assessment tool
Annex B - Quality management principles
Annex C - Correspondence between ISO 9004-2009 and ISO 9001:2008
Bibliography

The aim of ISO 9004 is to help users of ISO 9001 to obtain long-term benefit from a broader, in-depth, quality management system (QMS) based on their existing QMS. It uses the same quality management principles as ISO 9001. It is not to be used for assessment or certification purposes.

ISO 9001 focusses on customers. ISO 9004 extends the focus to include all interested parties including society, suppliers, employees and shareholders.

One of the main areas of comment on the ISO 9004 draft has been the relationship between the main body of the standard and the guidance on self-assessment in the annex. This self-assessment is based around 5 maturity levels (now, where have we come across that before?)

1. Beginner - focus is on products, processes are ad-hoc, results not predictable, improvement actions forced by customers
   
2. Proactive - QMS implemented, corrective and preventive actions well-organised
   
3. Flexible - process management implemented, predictable results, strategy focussed on customers and some other stakeholders
   
4. Progressive - balanced focus on all stakeholders, consistent positive results, continual improvement based on learning and sharing of knowledge
   
5. Successful - capable of maintaining good performance over time and developing further in the long term

From this it would seem that an organisation that has just been certified to ISO 9001 would not be higher than Level 2.

In addition to the ISO 9004 standard, a guide to this self-assessment tool is being produced along with an implementation guide for ISO 9004:2009.

When the final draft International Standard (FDIS) is available further detail will be provided.