The decision whether or not to require a corrective action and, if so, how far to go is often a management decision. Typically in registrar auditing, any nonconformance found (major or minor) will require a corrective action. However, within a company, sometimes the ‘infraction’ is so minor that a decision may be made not to require one. This will have to be addressed in your company’s auditing procedure.
In you company internal auditing procedure you should well define what is a ‘major’ finding and what is a ‘minor’ finding - if you make that distinction. There are some companies which do not even make a distinction of ‘major’ vs. ‘minor’. But - most do because it is ‘convention’ to do so.
Internal Audit System Base Requirements
There are several very important features to bear in mind:
It is important to consider whether the identified nonconformance is a ‘repeater’ (recurrent).
Particularly in internal auditing, disagreements arise which must be resolved by the audit program manager (or the equivalent).
Not every nonconformance identified requires a formal corrective action.
Some require a ‘minimum’ corrective action.
Some require a serious, in-depth investigation following the 8-D format.
ISO 19011 - Quality and Environmental Management Systems Auditing Forum Discussions
