The difference between Deviation and Failure - Creating an SOP to handle them

dear all, does anyone know what the different between failure and deviation? i'm trying to make a SOP for handling deviation & Failure in my company.
thx

Re: the different between deviation and failure

Why don't you just call it nonconformity which is the correct term for what you want, avoid confusion, and continue to march?

Re: the different between deviation and failure

rika_ndry said:

dear all, does anyone know what the different between failure and deviation? i'm trying to make a SOP for handling deviation & Failure in my company.
thx

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i've got this in Wikipedia.org

Deviation (statistics), the difference between the value of an observation and the mean of the population in mathematics and statistics.

Failure (colloquially fail, phail, flop or flub) in general refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective

Re: the different between deviation and failure

ignatiuswong said:

i've got this in Wikipedia.org

Deviation (statistics), the difference between the value of an observation and the mean of the population in mathematics and statistics.

Failure (colloquially fail, phail, flop or flub) in general refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective

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The OP is clearly talking about an ISO management system issue here.

Thanks anyway

Re: the different between deviation and failure

Randy said:

The OP is clearly talking about an ISO management system issue here.

Thanks anyway

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I thought she just confuse about the meaning of difference between deviation and failure, so i try to search for both of them in wikipedia for her.
and then if she just understand both of them, then easier for her to make that SOP,

Thanks and Best Regards

Deviation is, as defined in Dictionary.com:

de⋅vi⋅a⋅tion
   /ˌdiviˈeɪʃən/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [dee-vee-ey-shuhn]
–noun
1. the act of deviating.
2. departure from a standard or norm.
3. Statistics. the difference between one of a set of values and some fixed value, usually the mean of the set.
4. Navigation. the error of a magnetic compass, as that of a ship, on a given heading as a result of local magnetism. Compare variation (def. 8).
5. Optics.
a. Also called deflection. the bending of rays of light away from a straight line.
b. angle of deviation.
6. departure or divergence from an established dogma or ideology, esp. a Communist one.

Randy is right to advise you not to create confusing sets of terms. However, it's up to you to define the difference if your organization finds it important to do so.

If you do, a deviation could be seen as an opportunity for improvement, if it is not severe enough to be rejected as a product or service, but is not up to your desired standards. In manufacturing such a designation could be given to a part that failed inspection but was shipped after material review board, and/or upon customer permission. Your procedures could describe it that way.

In the nuclear repair industry a deviation from procedure or spec wouldn't be allowed. But if you are not nuclear, you may want to give yourself that gray area so you have something to point to when you want to say, "See here, we can do better than this."

This subject is bound to raise some disagreement, so I will be interested in other people's responses.

You could define the following in your procedure like this

Deviation - a planned departure from the normal practice, a predetermined and planned action. For example , the lack of a certain raw material that could be substituted with another raw material.

Failure - an unexpected result - probably from in house QC testing, or a customer complaint.

Denis said:

You could define the following in your procedure like this

Deviation - a planned departure from the normal practice, a predetermined and planned action. For example , the lack of a certain raw material that could be substituted with another raw material.

Failure - an unexpected result - probably from in house QC testing, or a customer complaint.

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Both of which are a nonconformity.........keep it simple, understandable and usable

Randy said:

Both of which are a nonconformity.........keep it simple, understandable and usable

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"Deviation" might be being used in the sense of using NC material with permission (from a customer, e.g.), in which case a nonconformity is involved, but the problem is disposition.

The deviation is a formal recognition of an authorised change, you can call it a non conformity if you want - but its just a recognition of an authorised change (displays some form of admission of control).


A failure is a non conformity.

Can help to categorise like this in terms of analysis of data.


You can see how many deviations were raised and perform trend analysis to put some actions in place to prevent recurrence(s).