Some simple, yet effective root cause analysis tools Only when you find and correct the root cause of a problem will you truly ensure that the non-conformance does not happen again.
In a corrective action process, it is critical that you do not just try to fix the easy-to-see causes instead, you need to look deeper into the cause of the problem to find the root cause so that you can correct this. If you have identified that a problem is more serious than one simple non-conformance, and you need to perform corrective action to prevent the problem from happening again, you will want to use a systematic process to ensure you do not miss anything – such as the Seven Steps for Corrective and Preventive Actions to support Continual Improvement.
This will take little investigation to find, and is a quick fix for this one-time problem however, it does not take action to prevent the problem from happening again.
Root Cause Analysis: The most important part of corrective actionĪs has already been discussed in ISO 9001 – Difference between correction and corrective action, a correction is the action you take to perform an immediate fix of the most obvious problem to remove the nonconformity and make the product or service acceptable to use. Considering how important this process is to the success of a good Quality Management System, it is surprising that so many companies struggle to make corrective actions work to their benefit. In fact, this was so important that the previous version of ISO 9001 included corrective action as one of only six mandatory documented procedures. When creating a Quality Management System (QMS) using the requirements of ISO 9001:2015, you will find that corrective action is one of the key elements to a good QMS.