The US standards body ANSI has announced that there will be a three-year transition period for companies to implement the new ISO 9001 standard once it is published. Per a marketing email sent to ANSI clients, the body declared:
The final ISO 9001:2026 publication is expected in September 2026, with a three-year transition period extending to September 2029. Organizations currently certified to ISO 9001:2015 remain fully valid until the transition is complete.
ANSI does not have the authority to make such an announcement, however. The transition periods are determined after a mutual decision between ISO and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF), who then publish a “Joint Communique” on their final ruling. No such communique has been issued for the new ISO 9001 standard since it has not yet been published.
One explanation may be that ANSI, as a member of IAF through its daughter company, ANAB, has inside information on the IAF’s decision and accidentally leaked it. More likely is that ANSI is assuming that ISO and IAF will follow through on prior years’ rulings and issue another three-year transition for this update, as well.
That is not a foregone conclusion, however, as some parties have argued for a shorter transition period, with some pushing for a one-year transition. This is due to the relatively small number of changes currently suggested by the Draft International Standard (DIS) version of ISO 9001:2026, which is available for review now.
Widespread discontent and criticism of the DIS, however, have caused some countries to insist that ISO scrap the DIS and start over. The DIS leaves all the errors from ISO 9001:2015 intact, such as the shifting meanings of the term “monitoring and measurement“, the lack of a clause on delivery of products, the removal of the critical preventive action clause, and the failure of the standard to close the Plan-Do-Check-Act loop. The authors of the standard, led by consultant Sam Somerville, also failed to make nearly any updates to clause 8, suggesting the authors have no real-world QMS experience.
Rather than editing the document to make ISO 9001 easier to understand, the authors instead added a ten-page annex that aims to provide guidance on understanding the standard. The additional pages will then justify a price hike by ISO, pushing more revenue into the company’s accounts and helping boost the salaries of executives and senior staff.
Australia has expressed serious concerns about the standard, as have a handful of other prominent nations. Many within the US mirror committee have called for changes to the standard, but US TAG 176 Chair Sheronda Jefferies has built a career on placating both ISO and the IAF, so she has not had the US make serious calls for change.
If the DIS were to be withdrawn and the work restarted, the new standard would not be released until 2027 at the earliest.
But ISO has populated TC 176 with private consultants who are willing to obey the dictates of the ISO Secretary-General Sergio Mujica and his hand-picked Technical Management Board (TMB), led by the Netherlands’ Dick Hortensius. Between the dictatorial, for-profit management style of Mujica and the overwhelming power he granted to Hortensius, any discontent is likely to be ignored. Mujica needs to ensure that the standard is released in 2026 so he can receive any bonuses or salary increases before his term ends later that year. A delay to 2027 would rob Mujica of these benefits.
