ISO Survey: why France's decline in quality is worrying

France, where has your quality gone? It’s hard to believe the latest census According to data released by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), based on figures reported by various certification bodies worldwide, French companies remain as eager as ever to demonstrate that they prioritize quality. In fact, the number of active ISO 9001 certificates as of December 31, 2022, is close to that of previous years: 21,880 in total in France, exactly the same number as in 2020. On average, a single certificate covers 2.8 sites, primarily those engaged in metallurgical activities. It is worth noting that ISO 9001 is a voluntary standard providing guidelines for implementing a quality management system (QMS).

Upon closer inspection, not everything is rosy in the world of quality in France. First, because when the sample is limited to certification bodies that reported an increase in their figures in both 2022 and 2021, the number drops to 21,653 active certificates—a 1% year-over-year decrease. This means that traditional certifiers are seeing their client portfolios erode, even as quality management is viewed as a process of continuous improvement, motivating companies to renew their certification every three years without missing a deadline.

6,000 new ISO 9001 certifications in Germany

Second, because globally, the number of ISO 9001 certifications is neither stagnating nor declining slightly, but has seen a sharp increase of 12%. As of December 31, 2022, there were 1,265,216 active ISO 9001 certifications worldwide. Just under half of these are in China: 551,000; a figure that drops to 531,000 when adjusted for sample size. But this is still 27% more than as of December 31, 2021, with the caveat that, generally speaking, a Chinese certificate applies to a single site, not multiple ones. Beijing has carried the new ISO 10010 standard August 2022 on quality culture is no coincidence. Countries accustomed to ISO 9001-style quality management, such as Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, are also experiencing stagnation, but don’t the 6,000 new certificates earned by Germany (with a stable sample size) suggest the existence of a French complex? France, ranked 10th in the ISO 9001 rankings, on par with Brazil…

Finally, we can also note a decline in ISO 9001 certifications in light of the growth in certifications based on other management standards: there has been a marked increase in certifications for ISO 27001 (information security), ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety), ISO 50001 (energy management), and ISO 13485 (medical devices). Even more established standards such as ISO 14001 (environmental management) and ISO 22000 (food safety) are not lagging behind. It should be noted that standards such as ISO 27001 and ISO 45001 are relatively new and therefore benefit from the novelty effect: a 45% increase for ISO 45001 in France and a 29% increase globally, for example. In France, the regulatory environment has facilitated the adoption of ISO 27001 by mandating or recommending its implementation for certain key players and their IT service providers: the HDS Decree, the GDPR, the Electronic Invoicing Act, NIS2, etc. Indeed, the one-thousandth certificate was already issued in France in 2023 , notes Brice Gilbert, an expert on the subject at AFNOR Certification, while keeping in mind that countries like Japan have not just 927 active ISO 27001 certificates, but 7,000.

ISO 9001: Revising the 2015 version to breathe new life into it?

So, how should we interpret this decline in French quality standards? There’s no denying that momentum has waned since the 2015 version of the standard was adopted—a version drafted eight years ago. The most recent attempts to update it date back to 2021 and failed, although a new wave of momentum is currently emerging, as AFNOR will explain on October 9 . In France, there is also the issue of the coexistence of the ISO 9001 “standard” with sector-specific quality standards, such as EN 9100 in the aerospace industry, ISO 19443 in the nuclear industry, and IATF 16949 in the automotive industry, even though equivalencies exist with the generic standard. Vincent Blache, an expert on the subject for the AFNOR group, points instead to a cultural limitation: In France, quality is still largely associated with products and technology, but not so much with organizational aspects , he asserts. In noting that France’s commitment to quality has been split in two: On the one hand, there are companies that want a modern, comprehensive ISO 9001 standard that is open to other concepts such as cybersecurity or CSR ; on the other hand, companies that want to operate the old-fashioned way, without stepping outside the factory walls. 

Whether you're cautious or adventurous, we can't recommend it highly enough Download the AFNOR study Quality Around the World: Trends and Paradoxes . While the concept of quality varies from country to country, the quality of the future is taking shape as one that relies on various factors, each of which allows consumers to make their own choices about what, for them, defines the quality of a product or service , concludes Vincent Blache.

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