ISO 9001:2026 management review inputs and improvement

What changes

In substance, 9.3.2 is the most important change in this group. 10.1 is mainly an editorial task, but it affects many documents, because procedures, audit programmes and manuals often refer to 10.3.

The new management review inputs

Add two items to the agenda and the minutes template. What matters is that each item has not only information but also an evaluation and, where needed, a recorded decision.

How to structure management review overall is explained in the guide ISO 9001 management review. The separate evaluation builds on the new structure of 6.1, described under risks and opportunities.

Customer satisfaction under 9.1.2

The requirement is worded more concisely: you monitor customer satisfaction and determine the methods for doing so. The note gives further sources of information as examples. If you already evaluate surveys, complaints, conversations and delivery performance, nothing needs to change. Do check, though, that your method is defined and that the results actually feed into management review.

Good methods combine active and passive sources. Active sources are surveys, customer meetings and visits. Passive sources are complaints, credit notes, returns, on-time delivery, praise and repeat purchases. Define for each source who evaluates it and how often. Small companies often manage well with a short annual survey and an ongoing complaint analysis.

Improvement merged into 10.1

1. 1

   Find references

   Search your manual, procedures, audit programme, checklists and mapping tables for “10.3”.

2. 2

   Change references

   Replace the references with 10.1 and update headings. The obligation to continually improve remains in substance.

3. 3

   Check mappings

   If you map documents to requirements, link your previous 10.3 evidence to 10.1 of the 2026 edition.

4. 4

   Approve and inform

   Approve the changed documents through your normal process. For pure reference changes, a simplified review is usually enough.

Evidence for the audit

• an updated management review agenda and minutes template,
• minutes in the new structure with evaluations and decisions on both new inputs,
• defined methods for monitoring customer satisfaction,
• documents without outdated references to 10.3.

Common mistakes

• Adding the new inputs to the template but leaving them empty in the minutes.
• Answering changes of interested parties with last year's unchanged list.
• Overlooking references to 10.3 in audit checklists.
• Collecting customer satisfaction results without deriving consequences.

Implementation in docxpert

For the 2026 edition, the “Management review” and “Management review minutes” templates in the template library include a supplement with the new inputs, decision, owner and due date. The “Nonconformities, incidents and corrective actions” template adds a section on continual improvement under 10.1.

In the transition area, 9.1.3 and 9.3 belong to the “review” step and 10.1 to the “documents” step. The comparison shows which documents are currently linked to 10.1 and 10.3 of the 2015 edition; you confirm the carry-over for 2026 yourself. Where needed, you track decisions from management review in CAPA management. The transition check gives an overview.