Despite a call for ANSI to do the right thing and not ratify ISO 9001:2015 as an official US standard, they did it anyway. Wasting no time, ANSI adopted the new standard on October 21, just a few weeks after the standard was published by ISO itself.
Cover page of the US version of ISO 9001:2015
The hope was that ANSI would push back against the ISO Technical Management Board (TMB) which imposed at least 30% of the content of ISO 9001 through its Annex SL mandate, in violation of both ISO directives and World Trade Organization regulations. ANSI could have used its clout to force ISO to revisit the process, but instead rolled over and made itself complicit in the WTO violations.
This, of course, was done to ensure ANSI could start reaping the revenue of selling ISO 9001 at its webstore. ANSI wasn’t concerned about violations of world regulations or problems the new standard will created for US industry and American companies. They just want the cash.
Which is all another black eye for ANSI’s president Joe Bhatia, who is coming under increased scrutiny as being part of the problem, rather than part of the solution.
Christopher Paris is the founder and VP Operations of Oxebridge. He has over 35 years’ experience implementing ISO 9001 and AS9100 systems, and helps establish certification and accreditation bodies with the ISO 17000 series. He is a vocal advocate for the development and use of standards from the point of view of actual users. He is the writer and artist of THE AUDITOR comic strip, and is currently writing the DR. CUBA pulp novel series. Visit www.drcuba.world
