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Draft for joint ISO 9000 and ISO 14000
audit standard now available
The draft of a new ISO (International Organisation for
Standardisation) standard for auditing both ISO 9000 (quality) and ISO
14000 (environmental) management systems is now publicly available.
Benefiting from the considerable body of experience that has built up
on the auditing of ISO management systems, the standard will replace six
existing ones in the ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 families. It will help user
organisations to optimise their management systems, facilitate the integration
of quality and environmental management, and, in allowing single audits
of both systems, will save money and decrease disruption of work units
being audited.
The draft International Standard ISO/DIS 19011, Guidelines for quality
and/or environmental management systems auditing, can be purchased from
ISO national member institutes or from ISO Central Secretariat (sales@iso.ch).
PSB is the national member institute in Singapore. Please send e-mail
to sales@psb.gov.sg or call 2793920
to purchase the draft standard.
ISO/DIS 19011 was published on 31 May 2001 and
has been distributed to ISO's members for a five-month ballot, closing
on 31 October 2001. If approved, the document
will subsequently be published, with modifications resulting from comments
received, as a Final Draft International Standard for a further ballot.
Its publication as a fully fledged International Standard is expected
in 2002.
Both the ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 families of International Standards emphasise
the importance of audits as a management tool for monitoring and verifying
the effective implementation of an organisation's policy for quality and/or
environmental management. Audits are also an essential part of activities
such as external certification/registration and of supply chain evaluation
and surveillance.
ISO 19011 provides guidance on the conduct of internal or external quality
and/or environmental management system audits, as well as on the management
of audit programmes. Intended users of this International Standard include
auditors, organisations implementing quality and/or environmental management
systems, and organisations involved in auditor certification or training,
certification/registration of management systems, and accreditation or
standardisation in the area of conformity assessment.
The development of ISO 19011 is being carried out by a joint working group
(JWG) set up by two subcommittees of the ISO technical committees ISO/TC
176, Quality management and quality assurance, and ISO/TC 207, Environmental
management. A Singapore nominated expert has been participating in this
development since the first meeting of the JWG in November 1998.
The JWG Secretary, Dick Hortensius, described the benefits which the new
standard is expected to bring users and the improvements made compared
to the documents which it will replace.
"The new guidelines provide a uniform approach for the auditing of environmental
(EMS) and quality management systems (QMS). As many organisations implement
both EMS and QMS - either as separate systems, or as an integrated management
system - they want to harmonise and, where possible, combine the auditing
of these systems.
"This saves money in two ways. Firstly, a single audit team - provided
the necessary expertise on environment and quality is included - can audit
both systems at the same time. Secondly, the organisational unit that
is being audited is only disturbed once.
"As far as external audits are concerned, ISO 19011 also provides certification/registration
bodies with a uniform approach and will facilitate the combined external
assessment of management systems. ISO 19011 is thus serving a real market
need for better harmonisation of practices in the quality and environmental
management arenas.
"An important improvement of the new guideline is related to auditor qualifications.
The standard recognises more explicitly than the previous auditing guidelines
that the competence of the audit team and individual auditors varies according
to the nature, scope and complexity of the audit and that it is not possible
to set uniform competence criteria which are applicable to all kinds of
situations. Therefore, ISO 19011 provides a framework that enables organisations
to set their own competence requirements and related auditor evaluation
processes."
"A last improvement is the combination of the descriptions of the management
of audit programmes and the conduct of individual audits in a single guideline.
This combination emphasises the relationship between the two and makes
it clear that the quality of individual audits depends, among other factors,
on the quality of the supporting audit programme."
ISO 19011 will replace ISO 10011-1, ISO 10011-2 and ISO 10011-3 in the
ISO 9000 family and ISO 14010, ISO 14011 and ISO 14012 in the ISO 14000
family. It will complete the ISO 9000 "core series" also comprising the
revised ISO 9000, ISO 9001 and ISO 9004, published in December 2000.
Adapted from ISO Press Release (Ref:
794)
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