(ISO: Geneva) -- Management system standard ISO 9001 has reached the final stage of the revision process. ISO member countries have two months to form a national position and vote on the latest draft of the standard before the Sept. 9, 2015, deadline.

An earlier vote on the draft international standard (ISO/DIS 9001) was approved in November 2014 by around 90 percent of members, but the committee also received more than 3,000 comments with suggestions on possible improvements.

Since then, the committee has met twice, in Ireland and Lithuania, and carried out extensive online discussions to analyze and decide on every comment received during the vote. Now that a final draft has been completed and translated, ISO members will proceed with a national consultation before submitting their final vote on the final draft international standard ISO/FDIS 9001.

Nigel Croft, chair of the ISO technical subcommittee revising the standard (ISO/TC 176/SC 2), was asked whether there were any major changes in the latest draft. “Compared to the DIS, changes are relatively minor,” said Croft. “The most extensive ones have been to the introduction and figures, which have been greatly simplified, with some of the explanatory text being moved to an informative annex. The terms and definitions have now been removed from the standard and added to ISO 9000.

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