Carretero, Antonio
División de Desarrollo Estratégico y Corporativo / Asociación Española de Normalización y Certificación (AENOR) / Génova, 6, pl. 6 / 28004 Madrid, España 34 91 432 60 00 / acarretero@aenor.es
ABSTRACT
This paper describes similarities and differences between UNE 81900Ex:1996 and OSAS 18001:1999 as an attempt to explain the same essence of both references, which is to provide a useful guide to apply health and safety management systems in firms.
Key words
Management systems correspondence, standards chronology, similarities, differences.
INTRODUCTION
The origin of all differences between both standards resides in the chronology of their generation. First version of UNE-EN-ISO 9001 was published in 1994 meanwhile UNE-EN-ISO 14001 was approved in October 1996. Because of UNE 81900 Ex was generated in June 1996, it had as reference mainly the quality standard, more developed and experienced then.
In the last years, ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 standards series had wide acceptance and have been extending progressively in firms. In this process, ISO 14000 series, as more recent and developed documentation was more easily understood and applied (because of its latest generation, taking advantage of experience and knowledge from initial difficulties in quality series interpretation).
Therefore, the new structure of quality standards approved in 2000 is similar to environmental series of 1996, trying to facilitate the integration of both management systems and a quick adoption.
In this context was created OHSAS 18001 standard in April 1999. It means an origin referred basically to environmental ISO 14000 series and an ISO 9000 series (which was then changing towards ISO 14000 series structure).
Having in mind these different origins it’s easy to understand similarities and differences next showed.
DETAILED DIFFERENCES
OHSAS 18001:1999 standard has an almost coincident structure with ISO 14001:1996 (see annex A in this paper, reproduced from OHSAS, and showing a strong parallelism even in sections order and designation).
A systematic comparison analysis of sections contained in OHSAS 18001:1999 and its equivalent UNE 81900 Ex standard is next presented.
General requirements
Although none of both standards mention an initial revision as an indispensable element of a general management system, there is no doubt (and associated guidance on the use of the specifications recommends so) that the realization of an initial revision is crucial to arise the level of development as initial point of tasks to system development.
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