Integrated management systems · Basic · 12 min lesson
ISO 14001 performance evaluation, improvement and integration
ISO 14001:2015 with Amendment 1:2024 - clauses 9 and 10, and links to ISO 9001 and ISO 13485
What you will learn
- Explain monitoring, compliance evaluation, internal audit and management review (clauses 9.1 to 9.3).
- Describe nonconformity, corrective action and continual improvement (clauses 10.1 to 10.3).
- Explain how the common high-level structure links ISO 14001 with ISO 9001 and how ISO 13485 shares processes.
Key takeaways
- Monitoring needs methods, criteria, indicators and calibrated equipment (clause 9.1.1).
- Compliance is evaluated at a frequency that fits the risk, and the results are kept (clause 9.1.2).
- Internal audits are objective and management review needs defined inputs and recorded outputs (clauses 9.2, 9.3).
- Corrective action removes causes and checks effectiveness, not only the symptom (clause 10.2).
- ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 share a structure; ISO 13485 has its own layout but shares processes.
Free practice question
At Wexford Moulding, a fictional plastics firm, the engineer who wrote the wastewater procedure is also the only internal auditor for the wastewater process.
What does clause 9.2 expect?
Select auditors so the audit is objective and impartial, for example a different trained colleague or an external auditor.
Correct. Clause 9.2.2 requires auditors selected to ensure objectivity and impartiality, which excludes auditing one's own work.
Accept it because the engineer knows the process best.
Not quite. Knowledge helps, but clause 9.2.2 prioritises objectivity and impartiality over familiarity.
Skip the wastewater audit this year.
Not quite. Clause 9.2.1 requires audits at planned intervals, and wastewater is a significant process.
Have the engineer audit alone but sign twice.
Not quite. Signing twice does not create independence, which clause 9.2.2 expects in selecting auditors.
Key terms
- internal audit: A planned, objective check that the system conforms to requirements and is implemented.
- management review: Top management's periodic review of the system's suitability, adequacy and effectiveness.
- nonconformity: Failure to fulfil a requirement of the standard, of the system or of a compliance obligation.
- corrective action: Action to eliminate the cause of a nonconformity and prevent its recurrence.
- continual improvement: Recurring activity to enhance performance of the system and environmental performance.
- high-level structure: The common clause structure and core text shared by ISO management system standards.
Go further
The full lesson has narrated slides, more scenario questions with explained answers and a simulation.
Open the AcademyWatch on YouTubeIllustrative example. Educational only, not legal advice.