ISO 9001 certificationQuality Management

No. As a certification body we must remain impartial under ISO/IEC 17021-1, which means we cannot design, write or implement your management system and then certify it. You can build the system yourselves or use an independent consultant with no link to us. We can offer an optional pre-assessment, which gives a factual view of readiness without providing solutions.

ISO 9001:2026 is an evolution of the 2015 edition rather than a rewrite. The process approach, Plan-Do-Check-Act and risk-based thinking remain. Published summaries highlight more emphasis on quality culture and ethical behaviour, separate requirements for risks and for opportunities, stronger planning of changes to the system, climate change within clauses 4.1 and 4.2, and expanded guidance in Annex A. We recommend a gap analysis against the published text.

Clause 4.3 allows you to determine that a requirement is not applicable only where it does not affect your ability to ensure conformity of products and services or enhance customer satisfaction. The most common example is clause 8.3 on design and development where you make products to customer designs. You must state and justify any such determination in your scope.

This depends mainly on how established your system is. You need to have run the system for long enough to produce records, including at least one internal audit and management review. Once ready, most organisations complete Stage 1 and Stage 2 within six to twelve weeks of booking. The certification decision follows a review of the Stage 2 audit report.

The certificate is valid for three years. Surveillance audits take place at least once each calendar year, with the first due within twelve months of the certification decision. These audits sample parts of your system each time. Before the certificate expires, a recertification audit reviews the whole system so that a new three-year certificate can be issued.

Your 2015 certificate remains valid during the transition period, which is expected to last about three years from publication, with an indicative deadline around September 2029. The formal rules are set by IAF and Global Accreditation Cooperation (Global ACI). Hexa can carry out your transition audit alongside a planned surveillance or recertification visit, usually with some additional audit time. Certificates not transitioned by the deadline will no longer be valid.

Yes, where the sites operate under one management system with central control, internal audit and management review. Depending on the activities, some sites may be sampled rather than all visited at every audit. We will ask for details of each site, its activities and headcount when preparing your proposal so that audit time is set correctly.

Yes. Because ISO 9001 shares the Harmonized Structure with standards such as ISO 14001 and ISO 45001, many organisations run an integrated management system. We can carry out combined audits that cover the common clauses once and the standard-specific requirements separately, which usually reduces disruption compared with separate audits.