Assessment of the risk-based thinking integration in the context of ISO 9001-2015 standard: A case study of a large industrial company

Abstract

The risk-based thinking is one of the main changes introduced by the latest revision of ISO 9001. This requires organizations seeking to implement a quality management system (QMS) to use the risk approach as a basis for building their own processes and management systems. As part of the process approach, the risk-based thinking has several advantages. It not only assures organizations that risks are identified, taken into account and controlled, but also makes it possible to improve the efficiency of the QMS as a whole. This new requirement, which replaced the "preventive action" notion in the 2008 version of the standard, also makes possible to identify and exploit the opportunities (the positive side of risks).

Indeed, the main objective of this study is to assess, in a Moroccan context, how a large industrial company perceives and integrates the risk-based thinking into its QMS in accordance with ISO 9001: 2015 requirements. To achieve this objective, we sought to understand in depth the perception of this approach by adopting a qualitative exploratory approach based on a single case study as a research method. Data was collected by a semi-directive interview (conducted with the company's quality manager) and the analysis of a selection of some internal documents. The results show that the company appears to be well advanced in terms of implementing best practices, adopting the tools most frequently used in risk management.

Keywords: Risk-based thinking, Industrial company, ISO 9001, Quality management system (QMS).

Classification JEL : L15, L25

Paper type: Empirical Research