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Miriam Boudreaux
Published: Wednesday, September 26, 2012 - 09:18 No matter how much effort we put into meeting a quality standard’s requirements for continual improvement, there are times when we are not sure whether to call for a corrective action. Although there is no instrument that points to yes or no and determines when a corrective action is needed, I have a few simple rules to make your decision easier and a bit clearer. Corrective actions are best suited for systemic issues or issues that affect the quality of your products or services. One-time issues usually aren’t suitable for corrective action unless they are customer complaints or they significantly affect the quality of your products or services. Here are some examples of problem situations and my take on whether they need a corrective action: If you are wondering about examples 1, 2, and 3, you may not be alone. Although they are not suitable for corrective actions, they are appropriate for employing another tool in your continual improvement program: preventive actions. However, if you are limited in resources and don’t have enough manpower to problem-solve one-time incidents, then talk to the people involved, discuss the issues, and make the incident known to your workforce. If it happens again, then you know that simply discussing the matter isn’t going to work. You may need to change your strategy (i.e., create a corrective action). I hope this helps in your continual improvement journey. Remember continual improvement is not just about doing corrective actions for the sake of doing corrective actions; it is about creating and implementing effective corrective actions so problems won’t happen again. Quality Digest does not charge readers for its content. We believe that industry news is important for you to do your job, and Quality Digest supports businesses of all types. However, someone has to pay for this content. And that’s where advertising comes in. Most people consider ads a nuisance, but they do serve a useful function besides allowing media companies to stay afloat. They keep you aware of new products and services relevant to your industry. All ads in Quality Digest apply directly to products and services that most of our readers need. You won’t see automobile or health supplement ads. So please consider turning off your ad blocker for our site. Thanks, Miriam Boudreaux is the CEO and founder of Mireaux Management Solutions, a technology and consulting firm headquartered in Houston, Texas. Mireaux’s products and services encompass international standards ISO and API consulting, training, auditing, document control and implementation of Web QMS software platform. Mireaux’s 6,500 square foot headquarters, located in the northwest area of Houston, houses their main offices as well as their state-of-the art training center. Mireaux itself is certified to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 27001:2013. To get in touch with Miriam Boudreaux, please contact her at info@mireauxms.com.So When Exactly Should I Use a Corrective Action?
Definitely for customer complaints and issues that affect your product’s quality
When to generate corrective actions
1. A form going from planning to shipping (i.e., packing list) was not filled out correctly: No.
2. A form going to a customer (i.e., quote) was not filled out correctly but was later fixed: No.
3. A form going to a customer (i.e., quote) was not filled out correctly, but the order itself was entered correctly: No.
4. A form going to a customer (i.e., quote) was not filled out correctly for three consecutive times: Yes.
5. The customer complained once about a form (i.e., quote) that was not filled out correctly: Yes.
6. A form going to a customer was not filled out correctly once and caused $1,000 in expedite fees: Yes.Take two
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Miriam Boudreaux
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Comments
RE: When to use a Corrective Action
Hi
I read your article with great interest, but in the end i wasn't sure how to interpret your point. I was left wondering:
I was very glad to read the "Take Two" section of the article - it helped me understand your point. Though I wonder if a desire to maintain brevity left a couple assumptions as implicit.
Based on this - I also wonder if your point really was "Be sure to design a corrective action process to accomodate the scale and importance of the entire range of incidents". With that understanding, we would be guided to the idea that we could create a Corrective Action Process small and light engough to note minor incidents (such as in example #1,2,3) with trivial amounts of time/effort investment, then close them with the corrective action of 'Correcting the form' or 'Notifying the person/group responsible for the error'. We would also then be in a position to truly know if Example #4 ("Incorrect Form Error for 3rd consectutive time") truly did occur and recognize it as possibly systemic.
Of course we all need the flexibility to exercise judgment in Corrective Action Processes as with all other aspect of management. A big part of that is deliberately designing the processes we all follow to provide appropriate guideance and record keeping so we can identify more significant issues quickly and easily.
Corrective Action is a process
Hello, thanks for your insighful feedback. Of what you mention, one thing strike me as overly important: the fact that Corrective action is indeed an entire process. This process does not end when a form has been filled out or even when actions have been put in place. Corrective Action goes all the way to verification and validation; the first being the mere checking of whether actions were indeed taken as proposed, the latter being whether the problem reoccur again or not. You should perhaps consider the impacts too:
The ISO standard does say that after creating a corrective action (request) you can evaluate whether actions are necessary.
About your point of how do we know is the first time, or second time...well yes you got a point. You will think Process Owners will be in charge but that may not always be the case.
thanks
Miriam
Corrective Action Initiation
Thanks for this article.
I could not agree more.
We are managers of resources and must use judgment. I think the examples used show good judgment. Regulations, risk and customer satisfaction and other factors drive the appropriate response. If we do not respond appropriately, either by inaction or over reaction, events will end up managing us rather than us managing them.
Corrective action
To me, even a single lapse is a System's failure, therefore, corrective action is neither meat nor fish. I believe that the corrective PROCESS must start with Containment, but it has then to grow to Preventive Action, or, even more effective, Predictive Action.
Corrective Action
Corrective Actions
Hi Miriam,
I reviewed yur article on " when exactly should I use CAs? Well, your article was prepared only for clients who are in the service industries. Do you have some good practical case studies or examples for using Corrective Actons in the Aircraft and Aerospace industries? Please reply back. My email address is: kaiser876@gmail.com
Thank you
Regards
Kaiser Saifudin
Corrective Action Sample for Aircraft and Aerospace
Hello Kaiser, Thanks for your readership! I was trying to show examples that could work accross various industries actually. But here are some quick examples that come to mind:
Hope this helps.
Miriam