ISO Quality Meeting
More than 300 delegates from 46 countries with 3 from Singapore, attended the 18th meeting of TC 176 (the ISO Technical Committee responsible for the ISO 9000 family of standards) in Kyoto, Japan, from 29 June to 9 July 2000.
Progress on the Year 2000 Family
ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 (Consistent pair of Quality Assurance and Quality Management Standards)
Some 3,300 comments against the Draft International Standard (DIS) version of ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 were reviewed. 240 responses of a validation programme (trial implementation of the draft standards) involving organisations from 23 countries including Singapore, provided feedback on the DISs.
An innovative approach was adopted to build consensus on advancing the revised DIS drafts to Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) status. This included the establishment of a Consensus Facilitation Group, circulation of Interim FDISs and the holding of a Subcommittee 2 (SC 2) Open Forum. The use of the consensus building process was well received by the members of SC 2 and the revised DIS drafts were successfully elevated to FDIS status.
The FDISs are expected to be circulated in early September 2000 for a 2-month vote by ISO's national member bodies. If approval is achieved, the standards are expected to be published by the end of 2000.
ISO 9000 (Quality Management Systems - Fundamentals and Vocabulary)
Some 1,100 comments against the second Committee Draft (CD2) of ISO 9000 were reviewed and the revised DIS draft was moved to Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) stage. The FDIS is expected to be circulated for voting, consistent with the time frames for ISO/FDIS 9001 and ISO/FDIS 9004.
ISO 19011 (Combined Standard for Quality and Environmental Auditing)
The TC 176/SC 3-TC 207/SC 2 Joint Working Group (JWG) met in Berlin, Germany, in March 2000 to produce the second Committee Draft (CD2) of ISO 19011.
The JWG did not meet in Kyoto, but plan to meet in September 2000 to bring the CD2 to DIS status. The DIS is expected to be available in November 2000. Publication of the standard is targeted for the 3rd quarter of year 2001.
The new standard is intended as a replacement for ISO 10011(quality) and ISO 14010, 14011 and 14012 (environmental).
Product Support
Comments against the draft Transition Planning Guidance (advice on how to make a smooth transition to the revised standard) and draft Product Introduction Planning Guidance were reviewed and revised versions were developed. These documents will now be taken forward as part of the overall Product Support initiatives.
The Product Introduction Planning Guidance will now be expanded into a Product Introduction Package (PIP) by the addition of a number of guidance modules on:
-
Process Approach
This will explain the process approach used in the ISO 9000 standards.
-
Documentation
This is intended as a guide to users on documentation requirements of ISO 9001:2000.
-
Terminology
This is intended to assist users to fully understand the intent of the revised standards and to facilitate translation of the standards.
-
Self Assessment
The difference between self assessments (as described in Annex A of ISO 9004:2000) and internal quality audits would be highlighted. Explanation would be given on how self assessment should be used and steps to be taken in implementing self assessments would also be listed.
-
Application of 9001 (previously the 'permissible exclusions')
Examples would be given to illustrate cases in which subclauses of clause 7 (Product Realisation) of ISO 9001:2000 should be included or excluded. Requirements that can be excluded are restricted to those in clause 7.
Fate of existing ISO 9000 family
A systematic review is being conducted on all ISO 9000 family of documents not currently under development. Participating members of the relevant Subcommittees will be voting on the fate of each document. Results of the review will be considered by the relevant Subcommittees.
Reference Web Sites
Regular updates are provided on the Year 2000 revisions of the
ISO 9000 standards at the following web sites:
-
ISO's web site www.iso.ch carries general information regarding the ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 9004:2000 revision programme
-
ISO/TC 176's web site www.tc176.org includes general information on the structure and work programme of ISO/TC176 including links to related password-protected and public websites
-
ISO/TC176/SC 2's web site www.bsi.org.uk/iso-tc176-sc2 carries detailed information on the ISO 9001/9004 revision program, updated on a regular basis.
For more information, please contact :
Ms Chua Mui Kiau
DID: 870 1336
Fax: 776 1280
E-mail: cmk@psb.gov.sg
to Index