ISO 9001 is the world’s most widely adopted quality management system (QMS) standard, used by well over a million organisations globally. It sets out a framework for consistently meeting customer and regulatory requirements, and for demonstrating continual improvement across your operations.
The 2026 edition is here. ISO 9001:2026 was published on 16 September 2026, the first full revision since 2015. It’s a moderate refinement rather than a ground-up rewrite. Notable additions include a new emphasis on quality culture and ethical behaviour under Leadership and Commitment, clearer risk and opportunity management, and formal integration of climate change considerations. Organisations already certified to ISO 9001:2015 have a 3-year transition period, expiring around September 2029, to move their certification across.
Three years sounds like a long runway, but certification bodies get booked solid as the deadline approaches, and a transition audit still requires real gap assessment and documentation work beforehand. Businesses that start early get to plan the work around their own schedule; businesses that wait get whatever slot is left.
For South African businesses, ISO 9001 certification is also increasingly a prerequisite for government tenders, corporate supply-chain approval, and export contracts, independent of the 2026 transition. Andreas Burger Consulting implements ISO 9001 practically, whether you’re certifying for the first time under the new 2026 edition or transitioning an existing 2015 certificate, so the system gets used, not shelved.
ISO 9001 alone, or integrated with 14001 and 45001?
Most SMMEs need quality, environmental and occupational health & safety management covered together. Because all three standards share the same high-level structure (Annex SL), implementing them together means one management manual, overlapping documentation, and a combined internal audit and management review cycle, rather than three separate, disconnected systems each carrying their own overhead.
| ISO 9001 alone | Integrated 9001 / 14001 / 45001 | |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | One quality manual and procedure set | One shared manual covering all three disciplines, with standard-specific annexes only where needed |
| Internal audit & management review | Run as its own dedicated cycle | Run as a single combined cycle covering all three standards |
| Certification audit | Booked and run against ISO 9001 only | Bookable as a single multi-standard audit with your Certification Body, subject to their scoping |
| Typical audit time (16-25 person business) | About 3 audit days | About 10-14 audit days across all three standards |
Each standard is scoped on its own, so ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 do not necessarily take the same number of audit days as ISO 9001. An integrated audit typically saves up to 20% of the audit time compared with auditing the three standards separately (IAF MD 11). Audit days are set by your Certification Body and vary with your size and complexity. Implementation fees are quoted on request, once we understand your business.
After certification: a QMS depends on CAPA (Corrective and Preventive Action), SOPs and controlled documents being kept current long after the audit. We recommend DynamicERMS, built by our technology partner Dynatek, for running exactly that day to day: CAPA tracking, SOP control, work orders and documented information.