3 Key Takeaways on the Release of the FDIS for ISO 14001

Recently the simpleQuE team attended the EAGLE Boot Camp and the NQA Teaming Conference where we learned about many technical aspects of the certification process and the upcoming changes in the standards certification industry. As ISO 14001 FDIS is due to the public next week, with the release of ISO 14001:2015 mid-September, simpleQuE president Jim Lee offers his key points from the event.

1. Certification bodies will be allowed to begin auditing to the FDIS requirements, as there will be no technical changes between the FDIS and the released standard, only grammatical and translation word changes.
2. Every certification body will set their own rules for how they handle the transition and upgrade to the new standard, but everyone must upgrade by September 21, 2018.
3. Many companies implement and certify multiple management system standards (i.e. ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, AS9100, IATF 16949, ISO 13485, etc.). This has led to the need to easily integrate them in an effective and efficient manner. The reality is that the various ISO management standards all have many apparently common requirements, terms and definitions that are subtly or substantially different. In the past, this has caused confusion and inconsistent understanding and implementation.  Therefore, ISO has created a higher level requirement commonly called Annex SL (formally ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, Annex SL, Appendix 2) that all new management system standards must follow for consistency, format and terminology.  The significant change this brings is that all management system standards will now have 10 sections with clauses 4 through 10 being the clauses companies get audited against.

The team at simpleQuE looks forward to the pending changes and is available to answer all of your questions. Please contact us at: 740-305-0868.

Article by simpleQue President, Jim Lee

Jim Lee is founder and president of simpleQue. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Ohio University. Prior to starting simpleQuE, Jim was the owner of ACLASS Corporation, performing laboratory accreditations to ISO/IEC 17025. He is an ASQ CMQ/OE and CQA, an IRCA certified QMS lead auditor, a former IATF certified IATF 16949 auditor, and a former RABQSA certified Aerospace Auditor.  Jim is available to answer all your questions about the pending changes. Join him on the social networks LinkedIn and Twitter.