Guidance
Management review
The ISO Navigator™ database hyperlinks the ISO 9000:2005 principles and the ISO 9001:2008 requirements; and explains them in plain English with practical guidance.
This guidance has been superseded by ISO 9001:2026 Clause 9.3 Management Review. If you want to see a comparison matrix that correlates the requirements of ISO 9001:2008 to the revised requirements of ISO 9001:2015, please click here to begin comparing.
Our range of ISO 9001:2026 quality manuals and integrated manual templates cover the requirements of ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001, and offer an easy way to implement and document your organization's quality management system or integrated management system.
ISO 9001:2008: Management review general 5.6.1 (superseded)
The management review process requires that top management periodically review the quality management system to ensure its continuing suitability, adequacy, and effectiveness. The frequency or intervals of the top management review must be defined in the QMS or in business plans.
The management review must address the possible need for changes to policy, objectives, targets, and other elements of the quality management system. The management review process must ensure that the necessary information is collected ahead of time to allow management to effectively carry out this evaluation. Information that should be reviewed includes:
- Minutes from previous management reviews
- The status of policies, objectives and targets
- Results of quality management system audits
- The extent to which the objectives and targets have been met
- Suitability and effectiveness of the QMS based possible changes
- New or proposed legislation or regulations
- Changing expectations and requirements of relevant interested parties
- New or modified activities, products, or services
- Advances in technology and science
- Changing market preferences of buyers
All management reviews must be documented and minuted. Observations, conclusions, and recommendations for further necessary action from the review must be recorded. If any corrective action must be taken, top management should follow up to ensure that the action was effectively implemented.
The purpose and final outcome of the management review should be continual improvement of the quality management system. As your organization’s QMS increases in its effectiveness and efficiency, your performance will likewise increase.
Here's what ISO 9001:2008 is really all about defining a policy, creating a plan devising relevant objectives. Performance metrics should be monitored with varying frequencies, some hourly, some daily, some weekly and some monthly; management cannot wait for six months to respond, if they do, it will be too late.
Every time management convenes to review and react to performance, it is considered as a management review. Whether they are reviewing an individual's performance, departmental programmes and projects, etc., this should be considered as valid management review.
Some companies have multiple review levels, whereby, each review may require multiple subjects and rely upon multiple metrics as inputs. Sometimes subjects are reviewed at more than one level, e.g. production numbers might be reviewed by the Production teams during daily production meetings and then by senior management, possibly weekly.
Top management might conduct weekly meetings in which they review metrics and objectives to determine if any corrective action is required. The process owner is then responsible for reporting close out progress in the meeting a week later. Undertake management reviews in order to:
- Determine and evaluate QMS performance
- Determine the need for change and improvement
- Determine the suitability of the policies and the objectives
Looking to document your management review process? Our quality manual template provides a great foundation for establishing, implementing and documenting the six mandatory procedures that are required by the standard.
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