Proving how frustrating it is to operate when the leaders keep everyone in the dark, sources outside of the US TAG — from other member nations outside of the US entirely — now say that ASQ is leaking the results of the US vote, and claim to have a 2/3 majority in favor of voting to approved the FDIS 9001:2015 standard. It’s not clear why ASQ would be leaking the results to other nations before informing the actual TAG members, but as we’ve learned, anything’s possible with this gang.
If true, it contradicts some sources within the US TAG itself, which claimed the final vote was a mixed bag, with neither side getting a clear 2/3 majority. And, of course, the rumors of the leaders “fudging” the numbers are already starting to swirl, mostly coming from the “Disapprove” camp who have felt their views were never given proper attention to begin with.
A vote to “Approve” would be good news for the US TAG leadership, which not only would benefit financially from a speedy and uncomplicated release of the final ISO 9001 standard, but also needs to avoid the humiliation of having spent so much time promoting the standard in public, only to have it disapproved from underneath them, by their own membership.
The problematic issues of ISO 9001’s vaguely-worded “risk based thinking”, the obligatory language of Annex SL, and the entire process’ failure to adhere to ISO rules, seem to not have rung true with enough members to force a clear majority to vote against the standard.
Most shockingly, the entire debate over the “calm and emotionally protective work environment” was ignored entirely by both the TAG leadership and the members. The only members to comment on the potentially-disastrous language — which Oxebridge argues will either result in companies or the registrars getting sued by disgruntled employees — was that because the language appeared in a “Note” it wasn’t therefore binding, and can be ignored. History tells us otherwise, but many of the TAG members are not actual users of the standard, so have not witnessed firsthand when CB auditors write nonconformities against allegedly “non-auditable” Notes.
The TAG also overlooked the fact that the “emotionally protective” language was added after into the FDIS against specific comments from member nations, and that the change is permanent — ISO rules only allow the FDIS to be edited for grammar and non-technical formatting. Large corporations are already reporting to me that they intend on dropping ISO 9001 entirely because of the clause.
Unfortunately, because of the Annex SL debacle and absolutely horrific leadership by both ISO and the US TAG, there won’t be any winners in this game. If the standard gets approved, it will always be under the shadow of rumors of corruption, profiteering and cronyism. If the standard gets disapproved, it will only be by the US and a handful of other nations, and so will point to the US TAG leadership’s utter inability to sell its position to other nations, and thus alienate itself while failing to support the overwhelming positions of major US industries.
If anyone in the TAG thought being in the leadership would be a great way to wind down one’s career, they are in for a shock. Everyone’s legacy is in tatters.
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