Knowledge management in ISO 9001:2026 – a new requirement not present in the 2015 version

When comparing ISO 9001:2015 with the forthcoming version of the standard, the most attention is usually paid to the organisational climate, risks and opportunities, or quality culture. Less is said about a change which, for many organisations, may prove equally significant in the day-to-day operation of the system: a clearer requirement for organisational knowledge management. This is an area which the 2015 version hardly defined explicitly – and which, in ISO 9001:2026, becomes a separate point of reference when assessing the maturity of the quality management system.

How does the approach to knowledge differ between the two versions of the standard?

In ISO 9001:2015, organisational knowledge featured in the background – as one of the resources required for processes to function – without detailed requirements on how a company should collect, update and pass on this knowledge. In practice, this meant that the topic was often reduced to job instructions and induction training, rather than a systematic approach to maintaining the organisation’s competence over time.

The new version of the standard sets this out more clearly: knowledge acquired by the organisation – whether derived from experience, data analysis or lessons learnt from non-conformities – is to be consciously managed, rather than merely stored in the minds of key staff.

Why this change has practical significance

This is a difference that addresses a real, recurring problem in many companies: the departure of an experienced employee who takes with them knowledge not recorded in any system. The 2026 version of the standard treats this risk as an element of the quality management system, rather than solely a matter for the HR department. In practice, this means that the organisation should be able to answer the following questions:

• where the knowledge required for the proper functioning of key processes comes from,
• how it is documented and made available within the organisation,
• what happens to this knowledge when the team’s composition or the company’s structure changes.

Where does this change come from?

The requirement for stronger knowledge management does not arise in isolation from the rest of the revision – it is linked to the growing role of data and the digitalisation of processes within organisations, as well as to a greater emphasis on ensuring that business decisions are based on documented findings, rather than solely on the experience of individuals. We discuss in more detail how digitalisation and the growing role of data are shaping the new version of the standard in the article ‘ISO 9001:2026 – Quality in the Age of Digitalisation, ESG and Supply Chain Resilience’ [KC2.1]. This is a natural progression of the direction already taken by the 2015 standard, which introduced a process-based approach and risk-based thinking – except that organisational knowledge is now becoming a separate, explicitly named element of this framework.

What changes in practice for a company that is already certified

Companies that have been operating in accordance with ISO 9001:2015 for years usually already have part of this area covered – for example, through operating procedures, training records or the knowledge bases of their technical departments. The difference is that, in the new version of the standard, these elements are no longer treated as an add-on to the documentation, but become the subject of a deliberate analysis: is the knowledge complete, up to date and accessible to those who actually need it at any given time?

It is also worth considering here how the system’s documentation as a whole changes in the new version of the standard – we discuss this in more detail in our article on documentation in ISO 9001:2026.

How to prepare your organisation for this change

A few specific steps worth taking, regardless of when your company plans to formally transition to the new version of the standard:

1. Identify where critical knowledge ‘resides’ within the organisation – whether it is documented or exists solely in the experience of specific individuals.
2. Check how knowledge is transferred during staff changes, promotions or job rotations.
3. Assess whether lessons learnt from non-conformities and complaints are fed back into the organisation in a form that other teams can actually use, rather than just the quality department.
4. Verify whether knowledge bases and instructions are updated on an ongoing basis, rather than only in the run-up to audits.

Companies that are already carrying out such a review today will avoid a situation where formal compliance with the new version of the standard amounts to nothing more than putting out fires just before an audit.

Summary

Knowledge management is one of those differences between ISO 9001:2015 and the 2026 version that isn’t immediately obvious in an initial comparison of changes, but which, in practice, can be of great significance to an organisation’s stability – particularly where key processes rely on the experience of specific individuals. If you’d like to find out about all the key changes and see what the new version of the standard means for your organisation, take a look at our comprehensive, point-by-point overview of the changes in ISO 9001:2026.