Systematic literature review of ISO 9001 and process management

Abstract

This paper presents a systematic literature review of ISO 9001 and process management from 1990 to 2017. In order to investigate the studies published in English on these topics, the keywords 'ISO 9001' and 'process management' were searched in science direct database. These terms should be mentioned in papers' title, abstract or keywords as an inclusion criterion. Studies which were redundant due to search criterion or which were published in a language other than English were excluded. Three rounds of analysis were conducted, including quantitative analysis of search results, bibliometric analyses, qualitative analysis, and in-depth reading of the selected studies. By carrying out the review, it was possible to identify an opportunity to deepen the studies that correlate ISO 9001 and process management, which is justified by the small number of papers published with this specific approach. In addition, the papers which were analysed in this systematic review did not address some important aspects in the relationship between ISO 9001 and process management, such as evidence of improved operational efficiency of processes, and cultural changes noticed in organisations after the implementation of ISO 9001.