Addressing Corrective action raised during third party audits

Corrective Action

Corrective actions are realising and defining a problem, containing the problem, determining its cause, and taking appropriate action to prevent it from happening again. Corrective actions should be considered as a reactive response to a problem, since it is taken when a non-conformance is detected, for example, from a customer’s complaint.

It is important to consider the difference between corrective action and preventative action. Corrective action is taken to eliminate the causes of non-conformities, or other undesirable situations so as to prevent a recurrence. Preventative action is taken to prevent the occurrence of such non-conformities, this is generally as a result of a risk analysis.

There are multiple reasons why you would need to conduct a corrective action process, which can include

• Customer complaints – Ensuring that the root cause of the complaint is dealt with to ensure that no further complaints are raised for the same issue
• Product non-conformance – if you are an organisation that manufactures products, conducting the corrective action process will allow you to reduce and contain defects
• Internal audits – if non-conformances are raised at internal audits, having, and following a corrective action process can help ensure that you are continually improving your management system
  

Corrective and preventative actions include stages for: investigation, action, review, and further action. This aligns with the PDCA philosophy that is at the heart of management systems.

Root-Cause analysis

Root cause analysis is a method of problem-solving used for identifying the root cause of faults or problems. Root-cause can be considered the core issue, or highest-level cause that set-in motion the cause-and-effect reaction that led to the non-conformance. There are multiple ways that you can look into the root cause, which can broadly be broken-down into the following tools:

• Pareto Chart
• The 5 Whys
• Fishbone Diagram
• Scatter Diagram
• Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA)
  

At AvISO we can help your organisation not only identify the non-conformance through internal audits, but we are also passionate about ensuring that where there has been a non-conformance, it is dealt with systematically to ensure that it does not reoccur, and you continually improve the effectiveness of your management system.

If you would like further information on how AvISO can help, please get in touch.