Three Certificates, Three Parallel Systems, One Company
Three management reviews, three internal audit programs and three document sets, describing the same factory to three auditors in three vocabularies.
General Manufacturing
Building products, electronics, ceramics, furniture, industrial components — the firms with no sector regulator, where the requirement arrives instead through a customer's purchase order.
ISO · International
EU · CE
OSHA · United States
The Shape of It
That is a harder position than it sounds, because there is no inspector setting the floor. What there is instead is a set of certificates — 9001, 14001, 45001, increasingly 27001 — each with its own audit, and a set of customer requirements that assume all of them.
Building one system that serves all of it, rather than four that overlap awkwardly and contradict each other in the corners, is most of the job. It is also where the saving is: three management reviews become one, three audit programs become one schedule.
What Applies
8 Documents an Auditor Is Likely to Open
The working set, not an exhaustive register. Each row prints the body that issues it, so nothing here depends on the color of the rule beside it. Customer-specific requirements sit on top of all of it and are frequently where the real work is.
ISO · Intl
ISO 9001:2026
Quality Management. The 2026 edition was published on September 16, 2026; certificates to the 2015 edition must move to it by September 30, 2029.
ISO · Intl
ISO 14001:2026
Environmental Management. The 2026 edition was published in April 2026, with a three-year transition. Increasingly asked for by customers rather than required by regulators.
ISO · Intl
ISO 45001:2018
Occupational Health and Safety. Worker participation is the clause most often under-evidenced in an audit. A revised edition reached draft stage in 2026 and is expected in 2027.
ISO · Intl
ISO/IEC 27001:2022
Information Security. Now a routine condition of supply rather than an IT department concern.
ISO · Intl
ISO 19011:2026
Auditing Management Systems. Revised in 2026, with more on remote and technology-assisted audits. How the internal audit program is designed, not just how an audit is run.
EU · CE
Regulation 2023/1230
Machinery. Replaces Directive 2006/42/EC and applies from January 20, 2027, with no national transposition to wait for.
EU · CE
CE Marking
Declaration of Conformity. The technical file behind it is the part that actually gets requested.
OSHA · US
29 CFR 1910
General Industry. Separate from your quality system, and repeatedly tangled with it in practice.
Every standard above has a page and a free brief on QES letterhead, with its status as checked on October 24, 2026. Browse Standards & Guidance.
In Practice
Three Things That Usually Go Wrong Here
Not statistics — QES's own reading of where these systems are most often found short, from thirty years of building and auditing them.
The Climate Amendment Paragraph Has Not Been Written
It has applied to every management system standard since February 2024, it takes an afternoon, and the surveillance audit is already booked.
Document Control Covers the QMS but Not What the QMS Points At
Procedures are controlled. The drawings, the work instructions taped to the machine and the spreadsheet the planner actually uses are not.
A Real-World Case
Two Battery Suppliers, Two Different Defects
Samsung’s Galaxy Note7 recall shows that a second source needs the same qualification as the first.
1.9 millionphones in the expanded US recall, about, per CPSC
- What Happened
- CPSC announced a recall of about 1 million Galaxy Note7 phones on September 15, 2016, and expanded it on October 13 to about 1.9 million after incidents with replacement phones. Samsung had received 96 reports of batteries overheating in the US, including 13 reports of burns and 47 of property damage.
- What the Investigation Found
- Samsung’s investigation, announced in January 2017 with UL, Exponent and TÜV Rheinland, tested more than 200,000 phones and 30,000 batteries. In the first supplier’s batteries, negative electrode windings were damaged because the cell pouch did not leave enough room for the assembly; in the replacement supplier’s, welding defects were tall enough to bridge to the negative electrode foil. Missing insulation tape was also cited.
- What It Cost
- Samsung introduced an 8-Point Battery Safety Check and an external Battery Advisory Group.
Sources. CPSC — Samsung expands recall of Galaxy Note7 smartphones (October 13, 2016) (opens in a new tab); CPSC — Samsung recalls Galaxy Note7 smartphones (September 15, 2016) (opens in a new tab); Samsung Newsroom — Samsung announces cause of Galaxy Note7 incidents in press conference (opens in a new tab); PCWorld — Samsung investigation blames Galaxy Note7 explosions on faulty batteries (January 23, 2017) (opens in a new tab). A public case, summarized from the official findings and reporting cited; QES was not involved in it. Figures are quoted as published. Checked October 24, 2026.
“Her background in adult education is an asset when working with colleagues of various backgrounds, including both introducing complex quality system requirements to management and working with operations to develop standard operating procedures.”
Where to Start
Against the Clause, Not Against a Feeling
A fixed-price gap assessment — two days on your floor and in your files, from $4,200 — produces a clause-by-clause table: what you have, what the standard in your column actually requires, what is missing, and what has to be written — with an owner and a date against each line. You keep the findings whether or not you engage further.
On This Page. The standards listed are the working set an auditor is most likely to open, not an exhaustive register. Dated statements are sourced on the research page. The experience described is drawn from Marcia Weeden's employment record and is available in full on her résumé. Canceled military specifications are marked as canceled where they are still cited in contract flowdowns. Checked October 24, 2026.