CORRECTIVE AND PREVENTIVE ACTION

Definitions: (Quality Procedure D08)

Corrective Action - action taken to eliminate the cause of an existing

nonconformity, noncompliance, defect or other undesirable
situation in order to prevent reoccurrence. The corrective
action required may take two forms to address the situation:
(i) immediate or adaptive corrective action: will
correct or address the current noncompliance.
They are actions taken to reduce or eliminate
a noncompliance’s effect;
(ii) (permanent) corrective action: will ensure that
the required steps are taken to see to the
noncompliance does not recur. They are
actions taken to eliminate the cause(s) of a
noncompliance.

Preventive Action - action taken to eliminate the causes of a potential

nonconformity, noncompliance, defect or other
undesirable situation in order to prevent occurrence.
Preventive actions are actions taken to reduce the
probability that a potential problem will occur.
Preventive actions may also include contingent
actions taken to reduce the seriousness of a future
problem if it should occur.

EXAMPLES:

1. CORRECTIVE ACTION:

During an audit of a program it is discovered that the “Reporting of Student

Accident” form is not being forwarded to the Secretary to the Manager of Student
Services.

Action taken to address the noncompliance may involve the following:

S review files and ensure that all completed “Student Accident Report”
forms are forwarded to the Secretary to the Manager of Student Services.
(immediate or adaptive corrective action)
S PUC reviews Procedure A02 with their staff at the next weekly unit
 meeting and ensures all staff in the unit are aware of the process.
(permanent corrective action)

2. PREVENTIVE ACTION:

To use Procedure A02 again; the requirement for first aid kits in each centre and to
have posted list of emergency phone numbers would be an example of preventive
action.

The following information is a composite of the ISO 9001 standards (in bold Italics) and the
Generic guidelines for the application of ISO 9001 published by ISO (in the blocked
paragraphs) for corrective and preventive action.

14. CORRECTIVE AND PREVENTIVE ACTION

14.1 General

The supplier shall establish and maintain documented procedures for implementing
corrective and preventive action.

Any corrective and preventive action taken to eliminate the causes of actual or
potential nonconformities shall be to degree appropriate to the magnitude of problems
and commensurate with the risks encountered.

The supplier shall implement and record any changes to the documented procedures
resulting from corrective and preventive action.

14.2 Corrective action

The procedures for corrective action shall include:

a) the effective handling of customer complaints and reports of product

nonconformities;
b) investigation of the cause of nonconformities relating to product, process and
quality system, and recording the results of the investigation;
c) determination of the corrective action needed to eliminate the cause of
nonconformities;
d) application of controls to ensure that corrective action is taken and that it is
effective.

14.3 Preventive action

 The procedures for preventive action shall include:

a) the use of appropriate sources of information such as processes and work

operations which affect product quality, concessions, audit results, quality
records service reports and customer complaints to detect, analyze and
eliminate potential causes of nonconformities;
b) determination of the steps needed to deal with any problems requiring
preventive action;
c) initiation of preventive action and application of controls to ensure that it is
effective;
d) ensuring that relevant information on actions taken is submitted for
management review.

Causes of detected (or potential) nonconformities should be promptly identified so that

corrective action may be taken and recurrence (or occurrence) may be prevented. These causes
may include the following:

S failures, malfunctions or nonconformities in incoming materials, processes, tools,

equipment or facilities in which products are processed, stored or handled, including the
equipment and systems therein;
S inadequate or non-existent procedures and documentation;
S non-compliance with procedures;
S inadequate process control;
S poor scheduling;
S lack of training;
S inadequate working conditions;
S inadequate resources (human or material);
S inherent process variability.

The conditions resulting from these causes may be revealed by analysis of the following:

S inspections and test records;

S nonconformity records;
S observations during process monitoring;
S audit observations;
S field, service or purchaser complaints;
S regulatory authority or customer observations;
S observations and reports by personnel;
S sub-contract problems;
S management review results;
S inherent process variability.

Note: Corrective action is not necessarily required for every occurrence of a nonconformance,
but periodic analysis of patterns of nonconformance should be considered to uncover
opportunities for process improvement.

Procedures should be developed by the supplier to establish responsibility for taking corrective
action and how this action will be carried out and the verification of the corrective action.

It is useful to implement procedures to deal with nonconformities discovered in product that has
already been shipped as satisfactory. Such procedures can include:

S investigations to establish whether the nonconformity is an isolated or a chronic problem;

S actions to be taken, if necessary.