I’ve been traveling a lot in the past weeks, and haven’t been able to report in real-time on the shenanigans involving the shady update to ISO 9001:2015. So here’s a news roundup of all the things that have happened recently. Unfortunately, it’s nearly all bad news for ISO 9001 end users, as ISO and the US mirror committee (“US TAG to TC 176”) are exerting their corrupt practices at full speed, unhindered by any oversight whatsoever.

[Adult Language Warning, because I’m just so over this.]

Admussen Hand-Picks US TAG Team?

According to internal memos, the US TAG to TC 176 has its new leaders in place, and all apparently handpicked by ASQ flunky Jennifer Admussen. You may recall that Admussen was the shady-as-fuck bureaucrat who put a ban on me from speaking at any ASQ event, ever, and more recently blocked folks from requesting an interpretation on ISO 9001 because she suspected they originated from me.

Per the memos, Admussen placed private consultants into the Chair slots for each of the TAG’s subcommittees, without holding any votes or even asking for nominations. Placed into the leadership slots are Lorri Hunt, Lisa Uhrig, Denise Robitaille, and Robert Freeman. This means that the TAG has no end users at all in positions of authority on the rewrite committees, and TAG Chari Alan Daniels has abdicated all his authority to the consultants.

You may recall that Freeman was found to be falsely claiming he (or his company?) was “AS9100 Accredited”, which isn’t a thing (it’s “certification,” you shit-for-brains). But I suppose if they once elected Paul Palmes to the TAG Chair role, despite Palmes have padded his resume by adding decades of “ISO” experience he never actually had, then Freeman’s fibs about AS9100 are nothing in comparison.

And you may remember Uhrig as the consultant who wanted to remain in the shadows, demanding I remove her name from my reporting so she could work in secrecy. Umm, how about “no“?

So users are completely shut out on this revision, to no one’s surprise. But per the ANSI-accredited TAG rules of procedure, the TAG Chair (meaning Daniels), is required to:

“ensure the balance of interest categories meet ANSI and U.S. TAG requirements”

He’s also supposed to manage the TAG Secretary who is, in this case, Admussen. That’s not happening either.

Might be time for Daniels to step down.

In Admussen’s defense — there’s a bit of leeway she’d never give me — she might just be signing off on whatever Hunt tells her. But it’s kinda-sorta not the way the memos read.

ISO TC 176 is Rolling Hard

Meanwhile, at the international level, the ISO TC 176 committee as a whole is pushing hard on the rewrite. In just the past week or so, they have vetted all user comments on the ISO 9001 rewrite “design specification,” as well as some other necessary committee placements and back office bureaucratic activities.

This suggests that ISO, no doubt under pressure from Secretary-General Sergio Mujica and the TMB, is really trying to get this thing out as fast as possible. I’ve calculated this means a 2025 release, at the rate they are going. normally, we’d see slip-ups and delays that would push that date out, but ISO’s behavior to date suggests they are not taking any prisoners. If they are willing to ignore the entire world’s resolutions to not update the standard, then they are willing to steamroll over any and all other obstacles.

This is all about getting ISO 9001:2025 published so that (a) ISO can start making money on the sale of the revised standard, and (b) Mujica can report back to the United Nations that he shoved “climate action” into ISO’s flagship standard, so maybe they will elect him ISO Secretary General.

Rwanda Attendance Low

TC 176 held its plenary in Rwanda, which made Rwanda happy, but pretty much no one else. As predicted, physical presence was so low, questions were raised if the group even had a quorum justifying any decisions coming out of the session. TC 176 argued they did, because they counted people who logged into the web events, even if they logged out thirty seconds later.

Hmm.

Recall that TC 176 is comprised of 92 participating members and 34 observing members. But this photo, courtesy of the Rwandan New Times, shows a pretty dismal turnout. I count less than 60 people. I see (at top left) about eight from the US alone, and a lot from the Rwandan body (since it was local for them). There’s no way a quorum of ISO member nations was reached.

Hell, Croft himself didn’t even show up! LOL.

TC 176 Won’t Consider “Implementation” While Writing ISO 9001

The huge change that occurred in TC 176 since the 2000 and 2008 editions comes from the loss of clarity within the mindsets of ISO 9001’s authors on just what the standard is supposed to be accomplishing.

Under the original 1987 standard, it was a contract device that would replace government specs, like the US MIL-Q-9858  or the UK’s Mini9stroy of Defence (MoD) specification. In 1994 it was updated slightly to make it more in alignment with companies seeking third-party certification, via audits by CBs. This remained mostly in place until 2015, when things started to get wobbly.

This is because the composition of TC 176 changed. the earlier versions were drafted with the active participation of standards users from key industries such as defense, automotive, and general manufacturing. By 2015, the users were all long gone, replaced by career consultants like Lorri Hunt, Jose Dominguez, and Nigel Croft. These folks don’t have actual experience ever having worked under a variety of quality systems, and have no end-user perspective. Worse, they’re dumb as fuck. When you take morons and give them unaccountable authority, this is what happens.

This crop of authors is more adamant about what ISO 9001 is not about, rather than being able to clearly explain what it is intended for. When asked to ensure that clauses are written in clear statements of requirements that prompt for evidence that can be produced for third-party assessment audits, they insist that ISO 9001 isn’t intended for audits anymore. But it can be used for audits if you want, … but they aren’t responsible for that. They (mis)quote an ISO rule that says the standard shouldn’t put limits on the usage of a given standard, and then interpret that to mean they no longer the fact that ISO 9001 is used for certification. Umm, sure?

Now they’ve gone even further, and say they don’t consider that you might use the ISO 9001 standard to implement the ISO 9001 standard. I’m not kidding; below is an actual line from the recent comment processing table for the new ISO 9001 design spec. In it, Canada asks to clarify some language on the process approach and risk-based thinking because, they say, “after 8 years of implementation…, these two concepts are still not consistently understood by a large majority of users.” To which the ISO Secretary said, “Go fuck yourself, Canada.”

That note on the far right column indicates the request was rejected (“TN” stands for “Technical Not Accepted”.) The BSI Secretariat, presumably Mroz-Orlikowska Beata, justifies this by saying “implementation issue not an issue with ISO 9001.”

That is some smug shit right there. Because TC 1276 authors are absolutely allergic to any criticism, even when a heavy-hitter like Canada suggests that maybe they didn’t write things clearly enough the first time, TC 176 responds back by swatting them down like an errant gnat.

So now ISO 9001 isn’t intended for implementation and isn’t intended for third-party certification either. I’m not sure what’s left, except for the obvious: ISO 9001 is now a make-work project for Nigel Croft and Lorri Hunt and a band of other corrupt consultants with nothing else to do.

So whatever you think of ISO 9001:2015, things are about to get much, much worse.

Remember to record your displeasure with your country’s national TC 176 mirror committee, listed here.

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