The Auditor - issue 33

ISO registrations hit new peak

The number of organisations being registered to the ISO range of management systems standards continues to grow worldwide. The recently published ISO survey provides an insight into trends country by country across the main international standards ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO/TS 16949, ISO 13485 and ISO/IEC 27001 up to the end of 2006. The survey requires input on a voluntary basis from certification bodies and is therefore unlikely to provide a totally accurate picture, nevertheless, the statistics make interesting reading.

Overall growth

Across all international standards the growth in registrations has been impressive; with a 16% increase worldwide in both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 registrations in the 12 month period to December 2006. Almost 900,000 organisations have ISO 9001 certificates with around 130,000 having ISO 14001 certificates.

The ISO 9001 statistics in the survey show a phenomenal upward trend from 2002, however, it should be noted that these figures are for ISO 9001: 2000 registrations only and ignore the registrations to the previous versions of this standard.

ISO/TS 16949 growth has also been significant but this was predictable as the major automotive manufactures set deadlines throughout the supply chain for the transition from QS 9000 or ISO 9001.

Significant growth areas

As expected China continues to led with the highest number of ISO 9001 registrations (162,259) although its growth of 13% was below the overall growth figure of 16% but much better than the previous years growth of 8%. Of the remaining top ten ISO 9001 countries those with the highest levels of growth were The Netherlands (107%), India (66%), Japan (50%) and Spain (21%).

Whilst the growth of ISO 14001 registrations is similar to that of ISO 9001 the overall level of registrations is much lower. Of the top ten countries China with a 49% increase, Italy (39%) and Spain (29%) showed the most significant growth.

UK performance

Of all the major economies within the survey the UK was the only one to show a fall in ISO 9001 registrations (down 10%) and a less than 1% increase in ISO 14001 registrations. The downward trend in ISO 9001 registrations since 2000 has been significant, with less than 41,000 registrations at the end of 2006 compared with over 60,000 registrations to the old versions of ISO 9000 series of standards. ISO 9001 registration still remains a pre-requisite for supplying to most private and public organisations and therefore the reasons for this drop in registrations is probably due to four factors:

1. decline in traditional manufacturing industry
2. consolidation of ISO 9001 registrations within large companies (one registration per group of companies)
3. transfers to others standards e.g. ISO/TS 16949, AS 9100 etc.
4. the rise of registrations from ‘certification bodies’ who are not accredited by UKAS

The miniscule rise in ISO 14001 registrations may also be due in part to the above factors, but as the UK had a head start with BS 7750, the forerunner of ISO 14001, it is disappointing that the growth in registrations has slowed considerably.

Other points of interest

It is fascinating to compare ISO management systems registrations with the population of each country. Of the larger economies Italy and Spain have proportionally the highest number of ISO 9001 registrations with Spain also occupying number one position for ISO 14001 registrations. The Netherlands ‘outperforms’ its larger European neighbours of UK, Germany and France, with Romania following, due to significant recent growth in registrations. Whilst emerging economies such as India and China have a long way to go to catch up with the more mature markets, it is interesting to note how the world’s largest economy, the USA, is well behind the leading ISO adopting nations. The graph also shows how far ISO 14001 registrations lag behind ISO 9001 registrations. With so much attention being paid to environmental issues it will be intriguing to see if this translates into a boom in ISO 14001 registrations in the coming years. Note – The ISO survey only includes registrations by certification bodies accredited by members of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). Full details of the ISO survey can be found by visiting the ISO web site www.iso.org.