Changes to the global economy during the last two decades have dramatically altered the landscape of business and industry. Globalization has enabled an ever-lengthening supply chain, which confers greater complexity and risk to every step of the process, whether for material goods or for services. Manufacturers are long familiar with this equation, but companies in the service and transactional sectors must now be mindful of the increased risk that comes from outsourcing and offshoring.

The recently released ISO 9001:2015 quality management system (QMS) standard will provide better insight into the nature of risk and how it can best be ameliorated, as well as moving preventive tools upstream to better manage risk.

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