ISO has released its annual ISO Survey report, giving totals on ISO 9001 certifications worldwide. In good news, it is releasing the information for free this year (prompted, I’m told, by poor sales of last year’s report.)

In not-so-good news, they password-protected the files. (To chart the data and use it properly, simply cut and paste the data onto your own non-protected sheets, then make charts to your heart’s content.)

First pass impressions:

  • ISO continues to ignore negative data, and has shifted its marketing to emphasize growth in other standards to boost morale. In the past ISO would use the growth of sector variants as the excuse for poor 9001 results. Now it heralds them. ISO 9001 is ignored in its marketing blurbs.
  • Overall ISO 9001 saw a decrease in total certs by about 7,000. This is only the second time ISO 9001 had worldwide negative growth, the first being 2003 when it lost about the same amount.
  • The US reversed a negative trend and showed an increase in certs (rather than a decrease) but only by 700 certificates.
  • ISO is once again reporting withdrawals, a reversal of its previous position. More than 82,000 companies withdrew their certifications.
  • UK and Germany both lost more certs than they gained.
  • North America is the geographic sector with the least ISO 9001 penetration, below that of either Asia or Africa.
  • The Survey now includes data from “national accredited bodies not members of the IAF” in Russia, which accounts for over 177,000 certificates. Normally these might not be included as the accreditation is not recognized, so this opens the door for reporting of “diploma mill” certificates — to artificially boost numbers???

More as I dig deeper.

Here’s the data:

http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/certification/iso-survey.htm

UPDATE:

ISO’s Secretary-General Rob Steele, making no sense whatsoever and contradicting himself mid-sentence:

“A number of markets where certification took off in the early 1990s are showing signs of having reached maturity. For example, overall, this is the case of ISO 9001 certification in Europe, but the effect is not evenly spread for Italy is the country that experienced the highest growth in certificates.”

Some questions I will be posing or Mr. Steele:

  • How do you define “maturity”?
  • Why is Italy an outlier?
  • Are you saying that ISO 9001 has nothing to offer “mature” companies, so they must drop it entirely?
  • Are your views based on any evidence whatsoever?

Link to Mr. Steele’s spin:

http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_survey2011_executive-summary.pdf

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ISO 14001 Implementation