The requirement for a “Quality Manual” from ISO 9001 is a long standing one from BS 5750 (the precursor to ISO 9001) and was typically a large document (“never mind the quality – feel the width”).
The current version of ISO 9001 still requires a “Quality Manual” as one of its documentation requirements but states that it needs (only) to include:
- The scope of the QMS
- The documented procedures established for the QMS or reference to them
- A description of the interaction between the processes of the QMS
At its simplest this could be a sentence or two covering the scope, a list of procedures, and a system diagram or flowchart of the QMS processes.
ISO 14001 does not specify a manual but also requires documentation covering:
- The scope of the EMS
- The documented procedures established for the EMS or reference to them
- A description of the interaction between the processes of the EMS
BS OHSAS 18001 again does not specify a manual but requires the same three elements to be documented:
- The scope of the OH&S management system
- The documented procedures established for the OH&S management system or reference to them
- A description of the interaction between the processes of the OH&S management system
In summary then, none of these three standards require “manuals” in the physical sense but all three require key elements of each management system to be documented. None of these documents need be large and it should be possible to cover all three requirements in each case in a few pages.
Note that certification bodies sometimes expand the requirements of the standards to suit their own purposes and make their auditing and assessment easier but there is no foundation for this in the basic standards.
ISO is aiming to “standardise” the management standards over the next few years and I expect that the requirement in ISO 9001 for a “Quality Manual” will disappear and the standard will simply ask for the three elements as do the other standards.