Introduction to HLS - High Level Structure

At QMII since 1986 we have been introducing and encouraging the integrated approach to management. As President and CEO of QMII I have emphasized this specially to the maritime industry, where for example a passenger line is meeting various demands related to passengers, food related, health and hygiene related and to an extent considering social responsibility aspects as a requirement to encourage passengers. Having discrete systems makes the implementation a challenge.

It is therefore very heartening that as the ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 27001 are being revised the standards will all incorporate a common structure which will make implementation of an integrated system a reality. All future standards starting with ISO 9001:2015 have incorporated this change. The purpose of the HLS – Higher Level Structure is to ensure all future standards (as they get revised) will have identical text covering the common components. Actually ISO 9001:2015 will be the second standard to adopt this. The standard on Business Continuity Management ISO 22301:2012 already incorporates this HLS. ISO 14001: 2015 too will incorporate the HLS.

So what is this HLS? All standards as of date already have Introduction clauses which under 1 cover scope, 2 to cover normative references and 3 to cover terms and definition. These will be the same in all standards and so remain unchanged.

The changes that the HLS will bring in are that all standards will now look the same and the other clauses would be grouped as follows:

4- Context of the organization

5- Leadership

6- Planning

7-Support

8-Operation

9- Performance evaluation

10- Improvement

This will then be followed by the Appendix and Bibliography.

For readers who are already familiar with the existing ISO 9001: 2008, please note these changes to the structure.

More detailed inputs/ comments on the structure follow in future articles. Please stay connected to the blog.