ISO 9001:2026 and continual improvement: what’s changing? 

Is continual improvement changing in ISO 9001:2026? 

Yes. But it shouldn’t disrupt your QMS or your operations. 

Continual improvement is already covered in Clause 10.3 of ISO 9001:2015. Corrective action is covered in Clause 10.2. These requirements connect to how you monitor performance, review results, deal with nonconformities, assess risk, set objectives and make decisions, as largely covered in Clauses 6 and 9. 

Based on the current Final Draft, ISO 9001:2026 strengthens that connection. The focus will be less on having an ‘improvement procedure’ in place, and more about proving that improvement is happening.  

Continual improvement is more than corrective action 

Corrective action is a critical part of continual improvement. If something goes wrong, you need to deal with it. However, continual improvement should go a little deeper than that. 

A corrective action usually starts with a problem. For example, a complaint, failed inspection, audit finding, late delivery or repeat error. Often, you can quickly identify and implement solutions to stop those problems from happening again. 

Continual improvement goes a step further by analysing what could work better. That’s not just corrective action; it’s preventative. Focus on developing procedures in your QMS that lead to these proactive approaches.  

Leadership must contribute to continual improvement 

Continual improvement is about far more than your QMS manager updating a few documents every now and then. Under Clause 5, leadership has overall responsibility for the effectiveness of your quality management system. When ISO 9001:2026 is released, leadership involvement is likely to become more visible in relation to quality culture, ethical behaviour and improvement. 

In your business, you should be able to show that your senior leaders support improvement through real decisions, such as those made during management review (Clause 9.3). These decisions might include approving resources, reviewing performance, removing barriers, updating objectives, investing in training, improving systems or changing processes when the evidence shows they aren’t working well.  

Improvement should be based on evidence 

Under ISO 9001:2026, auditors will look for clearer evidence that data-driven decisions support continual improvement. Useful evidence may include customer complaints, customer satisfaction results, nonconformities, audit findings, rework levels, defect levels, delivery performance, supplier issues, quality objective results, process performance and management review outputs. 

It’s about the data analysis, not just the presence of the data itself. What do you learn from your data? And how does that trigger a review, improvement action or corrective action where needed? And, for ISO 9001 and for your own performance, how do you prove those reviews and actions?  

Risks and opportunities should feed improvement 

Again, risk-based thinking is already part of ISO 9001:2015, especially in Clause 6.1. However, ISO 9001:2026 is set to make the link between risks, opportunities and improvement even clearer. 

This ties into making your continual improvement proactive instead of reactive, as discussed previously. For example, you might identify a risk around supplier delays. Your improvement could be to review supplier performance more regularly, approve alternative suppliers, or improve communication before delays affect customers.  

Planned changes should be reviewed 

Just because you introduce a change doesn’t automatically mean it’s an improvement. If you update a process, introduce new software, change suppliers, revise a form, retrain staff or make any other change, you should check whether it worked. 

This connects to Clause 6.3 on planning changes and Clause 9 on performance evaluation. 

A simple review might ask whether the change reduced the problem, made the process easier, created any new issues, improved understanding, produced a measurable result, or needs further adjustment. 

Gather evidence and set criteria for how you can recognise a successful improvement resulting from a change, or whether you need to take further corrective action.  

What should you avoid? 

The most important thing to avoid is creating paperwork for the sake of it.  

You should also avoid treating ISO 9001:2026 as a document editing exercise. Changing clause references or rewriting procedures won’t prove continual improvement on its own. Although documented processes matter, the real consideration is how well you 

How ISO QSL helps you optimise continual improvement 

Overall, continual improvement under ISO 9001:2026 will stay essentially the same. But the guidance and requirements will make it more specific and evidence-based. You may need to put more emphasis on how you demonstrate your continual improvement than in the past. 

We’ve discussed how continual improvement needs to be addressed and implemented on this page. If your organisation could use a helping hand from trusted ISO experts, get in touch with ISO QSL today. 

As ISO consultants, we help businesses like yours across the country achieve ISO 9001 certification. We work with you to understand your objectives and implement continual improvement policies that work. Get in touch today to schedule your free consultation and prepare your QMS for the ISO 9001:2026 transition.