ISO 9004:2018-04

What is this standard about?

This document provides guidance for organizations to achieve sustained success in a complex, demanding and ever-changing environment, with reference to the quality management principles described in ISO 9000:2015. Where they are applied collectively, quality management principles can provide a unifying basis for an organization’s values and strategies. This document focuses on providing confidence in the organization’s ability to achieve sustained success and provides a self-assessment tool to review the extent to which the organization has adopted the concepts in this document.

Who is this standard for?

This document is applicable to any organization, regardless of its size, type and activity.

Why should you use this standard?

This document addresses the systematic improvement of the organization’s overall performance. It includes the planning, implementation, analysis, evaluation and improvement of an effective and efficient management system.
Factors affecting an organization’s success continually emerge, evolve, increase or diminish over the years, and adapting to these changes is important for sustained success. Examples include social responsibility, environmental and cultural factors, in addition to those that might have been previously considered, such as quality. However, the organization should go beyond the quality of its products and services and the needs and expectations of its customers. To achieve sustained success, the organization should focus on anticipating and meeting the needs and expectations of its interested parties, with the intent of enhancing their satisfaction and overall experience.

What’s changed since the last update?

This fourth edition cancels and replaces the third edition (ISO 9004:2009), which has been technically revised. The main changes compared to the previous edition are as follows:

• alignment with the concepts and terminology of ISO 9000:2015 and ISO 9001:2015;
• focus on the concept of “quality of an organization”;
• focus of the concept of “identity of an organization”.
  

This document replaces ISO 9004:2009-11 .