Mohammad Zaid http://iso-qms.blogspot.com/
Understanding Correction, Corrective Action and
Preventive Action

These three words are very ambiguous in their meaning and are always the source of
confusion for beginners. Very often Corrective action and Preventive action are used
in the same sense by many people.
Well there is a very fine difference between all these terms and it is very simple to
differentiate as long as you understand the terms clearly.


According to the ISO 9000 - Quality Management System - Fundamentals and
Vocabulary, the following are the definitions.
Preventive Action: Action to eliminate cause of potential nonconformity or other
potential undesirable situation.
When we look at the definition, the word to be observed is POTENTIAL. That means
problem has not occurred yet.
For example, to avoid the breakdown of cutting tool on lathe. Proper angle, speed of
rotation, feed parameters are maintained. Sometimes CNCs are used instead of
manual lathe to avoid any problem or potential failure of machine or work piece.

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Mohammad Zaid http://iso-qms.blogspot.com/
These all measure which are taken in advance in anticipation of any potential failure
that can occur, are called preventive actions.
A risk management process is also a good example of preventive action. Assessing the
impact and likelihood of a risk occurring and taking action to prevent occurrence is
preventive action.
Corrective Action: Action taken to eliminate the cause of the detected nonconformity
or other undesirable situation.
Correction: Action taken to eliminate a detected nonconformity.
When we look at the definition, the word to be observed is DETECTED. That means
problem has already occurred.
For example, cutting tool of lathe machine breaks down because of improper feeding
of work piece.
The action to be taken in this case has to be in two parts.
Correction: Remove the cutting tool and replace with new one. However this does not
solve the problem.
The next action needed is corrective action: Find the root cause which has lead to
the problem of tool failure and eliminate the cause. The cause may be failure in any
of moving gears, change in motor RPM, and misalignment of tool with respect to work
piece or combination of these.
The problem can only be solved only if all the causes are eliminated.
Strictly speaking ISO 9000 distinguishes preventive action from corrective action by
noting that preventive action is taken to prevent occurrence as opposed to recurrence
which characterises corrective action.
Simply put, corrective action is based on a non-conformance event that has happened
in the past. Preventive action is based on preventing a non-conformance event in the
future.
Procedure Requirements
ISO 9001:2008 makes it clear that a procedure is requested for corrective action and
also a procedure is required for preventive action. This could be a single document or
separate documents as ISO 9000 does not specify it. However it is recommended to
make separate documents to avoid any confusion in these approaches.

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Mohammad Zaid http://iso-qms.blogspot.com/
For A rticle on Q uality visit my blog http:/ / iso-qms.blogspot.com/
Link to Previous A rticles
1. Why Quality Is Still an Exclusive Concept and What Is the Remedy?
2. 3 Ms. | 5 Why's. | 5 Ss. | 6 Ms. | 7 Wastes. | 8D.
3. Elements of resistance to Quality Management
4. 15 Inspirational Steve Jobs Quotes
5. Misconceptions about the ISO 9000 family
6. Philip B. Crosby: Four Absolutes of Quality Management and 14-Step Quality
Improvement Plan
7. Benefits of Implementing a QMS
8. IS TQM A TOTAL SOLUTION?
9. ISO List
10. Twelve Obstacles to Implementing Quality
11. Quality Control Tools
12. PDCA Cycle
13. Top Quality Gurus
14. Quality management system - Summary of requirements
15. Difference between Quality Assurance and Quality Control
16. What is ISO 9000?
17. Quality Glossary - A to Z
18. The Quality Control Audit - By Kaoru Ishikwa
19. The eight principles of quality management
20. Executive Summary of the 14 Toyota Way Principles
21. Toyota Production System

For suggestions & feedback contact me at er.zaid.2004@gmail.com

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Document Outline

• Understanding Correction, Corrective Action and Preventive Action
• 0TUWhy Quality Is Still an Exclusive Concept and What Is the Remedy?
• 0TU3 Ms. | 5 Whys. | 5 Ss. | 6 Ms. | 7 Wastes. | 8D.
• 0TUElements of resistance to Quality Management
• 0TU15 Inspirational Steve Jobs Quotes
• 0TUMisconceptions about the ISO 9000 familyU0T
• 0TUPhilip B. Crosby: Four Absolutes of Quality Management and 14-Step Quality Improvement PlanU0T
• 0TUBenefits of Implementing a QMSU0T
• 0TUIS TQM A TOTAL SOLUTION?U0T
• 0TUISO List
• UTwelve Obstacles to Implementing Quality
• UQuality Control Tools
• UPDCA Cycle
• UTop Quality Gurus
• UQuality management system - Summary of requirements
• UDifference between Quality Assurance and Quality Control
• UWhat is ISO 9000?
• UQuality Glossary Ѕ A to Z
• UThe Quality Control Audit - By Kaoru Ishikwa
• UThe eight principles of quality management
• UExecutive Summary of the 14 Toyota Way Principles
• UToyota Production System

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