Corrective action is a measure that aims to eliminate the cause of a problem. On the other hand, preventive action aims to eliminate the cause of potential issues that have not yet occurred. Both can be used to increase quality as well as prevent non-conformities – especially if you want to comply with ISO 9001.
Keep reading and understand more about the details and differences between corrective and preventive action. In addition, also see how to implement them in your company and how they help mitigate the impact of non-conformities and other problems.
What is corrective action?
Corrective action can be defined as an action taken to eliminate the root cause of a problem after it has been identified, thus preventing it from occurring again.
However, it is important to reinforce that these corrective measures need to be taken immediately after the problem/non-compliance occurs to mitigate its consequences. In other words: corrective action is always carried out after a fact or failure that has already happened.
To make it easier to understand the concept of corrective action, here’s an example: after a machine fails, a company can take corrective action to fix the machine’s defect and, in addition, review its maintenance procedures.
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What is preventive action?
As the name implies, the main characteristic of preventive action is precisely to anticipate a possible failure or non-compliance. In this case, it is an action taken to eliminate the root cause of potential problems, thus preventing them from occurring.
Therefore, preventive actions are taken on failures or challenges that have not yet occurred. In this way, they can reduce unnecessary costs with repairs, corrections, losses in production and time spent generated by the problem/non-conformity.
Again, let’s continue with the previous example to better understand how preventive action happens in practice. In the case of a company that deals with machinery subject to failures, a preventive action may be to stipulate a recurring preventive maintenance program on the devices. This would minimize the risk of malfunctions.
What is the difference between corrective and preventive action?
Although they are similar, there are differences between corrective action and preventive action. As you may have already noticed, the main one is the moment to act.
Corrective action occurs after a problem or non-compliance occurs, while preventive action is put into practice even before a potential occurrence occurs. This definition follows the standard stipulated by ISO 9001, which governs the criteria for Quality Management System (QMS).
If you have doubts about which of the two is better and which one should be implemented in your company, the answer is simple: both are important! After all, it is precisely because they act at different times that they can help your company mitigate the negative effects of occurrences and problems — whether before or after they happen.
The reinforcement in quality and compliance generated by corrective and preventive actions has increasingly increased their adoption in corporations. In fact, this has been a positive market differential that brings savings. As a Forrester survey shows, 47% of the world’s producers use predictive maintenance technologies to reduce operating costs.
Therefore, if you do not yet have corrective and preventive action methodologies, you need to include them in your operation. And if you already have them, you should ensure that they work well, as well as adopt forms of continuous improvement on them.
But, after all, how to do this in practice? A good way out is to follow the guidelines of ISO 9001, the golden rule when it comes to quality management.
Corrective and preventive action: how ISO 9001 helps mitigate problems
ISO 9001 is a certification of the International Organization for Standardization. It attests that a company has an international standard of quality management.
This ISO has requirements for companies to be certified. Among the requirements are the guidelines for implementing a QMS. More recent certification updates define how to maintain and improve quality management and, in addition, create and manage preventive and corrective actions.
This often happens through non-compliance reports which, in turn, creates corrective/preventive actions.
With all this apparatus to ensure quality and reduce negative impacts on the operation of companies, it is no surprise that ISO 9001 has become so popular – to the point of being almost a prerequisite in many markets.
This care proves to be valuable, as a McKinsey study points out: companies that implement effective corrective and preventive actions can reduce operating costs by up to 30%.
A Gartner survey indicates that Companies that adopt robust preventive practices can mitigate up to 50% of the financial impacts of disruptions in their operations.
How to treat RNC in the new ISO 9001
To use an RNC within ISO 9001, you need to understand how to use a corrective/preventive action to address non-conformities. Thus, you can count on the benefits of using ISO 9001 good practices on this topic.
See below for a quick guide to achieving this!
RNC and corrective action in ISO 9001
- Identification and Documentation: ISO 9001 requires organizations to identify and document non-conformities. This includes recording the issue, the root cause, and the corrective actions taken to fix the situation.
- Root Cause Analysis: The standard encourages conducting a root cause analysis to understand why the non-compliance occurred. Tools such as the 5 Whys or Cause and Effect Analysis (Ishikawa Diagram) are often used.
- Implementation of Actions: Corrective actions must be planned and implemented to eliminate the cause of non-compliance and prevent its recurrence. This could include changes to processes, additional training, or improvements in quality control.
- Verification of Effectiveness: after the implementation of the measures, the effectiveness of the corrective actions must be verified. This ensures that the issue has been resolved and that it will not occur again.
RNC and preventive action in ISO 9001
- Risk Analysis: ISO 9001 promotes a risk-based approach, where organizations must identify potential risks and opportunities. This helps prevent problems before they occur.
- Planning and Implementation: Based on risk analysis, organizations should plan and implement preventive actions. This could include reviewing procedures, performing preventative maintenance on equipment, or implementing new quality controls.
- Monitoring and Review: Preventive actions should be monitored and reviewed regularly to ensure their effectiveness. This includes analyzing performance data and conducting internal audits.
How to implement corrective and preventive actions
Many companies end up having doubts about how to implement corrective and preventive action, even knowing their importance. This can happen for several reasons, such as a lack of structure, a team not focused on quality, or even the use of outdated tools to handle this task.
If you want to prevent this from happening in your company, you need to know how to develop a strategic structure when creating a non-conformance correction plan that uses corrective and preventive actions.
A golden tip in this regard is to have a business quality management system. That way, you’ll have a structure that makes it easy to create, manage, and share these measures.
Also, try to follow some essential steps, which you know below!
Implementation of Corrective Actions
Here are some tips for implementing corrective actions in your company.
- Problem Identification:
- Detect and document the non-compliance or failure that has happened.
- Use tools, such as root cause analysis, to understand what generated this problem and what its impact is.
- Action Planning:
- Define the necessary actions so that you can fix the problem.
- Establish an execution schedule, define who will be responsible and allocate resources (whether financial, ferment, personnel, or time).
- Implementation:
- Implement corrective actions as per the plan created earlier.
- Ensure that all parties involved in the construction and execution of the corrective action are informed and trained to deal with it.
- Checking:
- Monitor the results to ensure that the issue has been resolved effectively.
- Conduct audits or reviews periodically to confirm the effectiveness of the current action and whether there is another way to resolve the issue even more efficiently.
- Documentation and Communication:
- Record all the steps and results of this complete process, from start to finish.
- Communicate the results achieved (whether positive or negative) to stakeholders.
Implementation of Preventive Actions
To facilitate the creation of a preventive action, you can use the step-by-step below.
- Risk Analysis:
- Identify potential risks related to a particular area, product, or task and their respective areas for improvement.
- Use tools such as FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) to assess these risks, following criteria such as probability of occurrence and impact on operation, for example.
- Action Planning:
- Develop action plans to mitigate the risks identified previously or even eradicate them altogether.
- Set goals for this to be put into execution, as well as the performance indicators that will guide the analysis of the results.
- Implementation:
- Implement preventive actions according to the plan defined in the previous step.
- Train staff to ensure understanding and adherence to new practices and, if necessary, use the tools, practices, and routines adopted to avoid non-conformities.
- Monitoring and Review:
- Using those performance indicators created in step two, evaluate the effectiveness of preventive actions.
- Periodically review and adjust actions as needed.
- Documentation and Communication:
- As with corrective action, also record all the measures and results involved with the preventive action.
- Communicate improvements and changes to stakeholders, assessing whether they are still relevant and/or can be improved.
Learn more: The benefits that ISO 9001 can bring to your company
Conclusion
As you have seen, corrective and preventive actions are essential to ensure compliance and quality of your products and services. After all, it is through them that you can not only solve any problems but also prevent so many others from happening.
To do this, incorporate the guidelines and good practices contained in ISO 9001 into your QMS. Thus, the preparation and use of corrective/preventive action will be more organized and, above all, efficient. Also, remember to include these actions within your continuous improvement process.
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