How do you handle missing information? People seem to "forget" to enter information

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LexieB

Hi everyone! It's almost the weekend...

I don't know if this has come up (actually, I'm sure it has and I just can't find it), but what do you do when people don't properly fill out documentation? I find problem is most prevalent in verifications. People seem to "forget" verification steps all the time. Forms come back unsigned, and there there are other "holes" in your documents, you send it back to the process owners and they fill it out, but for all you know they could be making it up.

Do you start initiating corrective actions on those employees who fail to sign in real time? Do you wait until you've had to reject too much paperwork?

What do you do with the guy who will just never sign off?
 

GStough

Leader
Super Moderator
Re: How do you handle missing information?

Depending on what kind of documentation it is, I would usually return it to the person I received it from (or whomever didn't sign/date where they should have) and ask them to please sign/date in the appropriate place and return to me. This usually occurred on product change requests, and it didn't take too many returns before folks got the message.

As for a situation such as you described, it doesn't sound as though returning the documents for completion is always the best option....would be interested to see what others would or have done in this situation....
 

SteelMaiden

Super Moderator
Trusted Information Resource
Re: How do you handle missing information?

Step one, contact the person who made the error. If that doesn't straighten out the problem, I talk to the area supervisor. Next, the manager of the area and a corrective action request.
 

CarolX

Trusted Information Resource
Re: How do you handle missing information?

Hi Lexie and Welcome to the Cove!!

I don't know if this has come up (actually, I'm sure it has and I just can't find it), but what do you do when people don't properly fill out documentation? I find problem is most prevalent in verifications. People seem to "forget" verification steps all the time. Forms come back unsigned, and there there are other "holes" in your documents, you send it back to the process owners and they fill it out, but for all you know they could be making it up.

What type of documents are these? Are they records of inspection and test results? Records of operations completed?


Do you start initiating corrective actions on those employees who fail to sign in real time? Do you wait until you've had to reject too much paperwork?

That is one option, but it may not be the best. What other avenues do you have? Can this be addressed in an internal audit as a systemic problem?

What do you do with the guy who will just never sign off?

Can you speak with him and find out why?

You may want to get some feedback from the actual users as to why the documention is not complete and then try to find a way to hold folks accountable.

Hope this helps a bit!
 

somashekar

Leader
Admin
Re: How do you handle missing information?

Hi everyone! It's almost the weekend...

I don't know if this has come up (actually, I'm sure it has and I just can't find it), but what do you do when people don't properly fill out documentation? I find problem is most prevalent in verifications. People seem to "forget" verification steps all the time. Forms come back unsigned, and there there are other "holes" in your documents, you send it back to the process owners and they fill it out, but for all you know they could be making it up.

Do you start initiating corrective actions on those employees who fail to sign in real time? Do you wait until you've had to reject too much paperwork?

What do you do with the guy who will just never sign off?
This is universal. I believe there are good QMS documentation softwares in which the concerned personnel have to update and perform necessary tasks and it remains open untill done. Perhaps such systems forces such individuals to act upon with responsibility.
Just to let you know that I am also facing such situations and will closely follow what other learned persons here have to say.....
 

Jim Wynne

Leader
Admin
Re: How do you handle missing information?

I don't know if this has come up (actually, I'm sure it has and I just can't find it), but what do you do when people don't properly fill out documentation? <snip>
What do you do with the guy who will just never sign off?
You talk to the people and ask them why they're not filling the stuff out correctly, and then you address that problem (or those problems).
 
L

lego55

Re: How do you handle missing information?

I agree with everyone here about bringing it back to them and asking why information is missing. The form may just need some adjustments. Most importantly, do not enable them by filling it out yourself; have them fill in the missing information.:2cents:
 
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LEDgible-man

Re: How do you handle missing information?

I agree with everyone here about bringing it back to them and asking why information is missing. The form may just need some adjustments. Most importantly, do not enable them by filling it out yourself; have them fill in the missing information.:2cents:

Agreed, enabling normally results in exacerbation of the issue.

I had this same problem on lower level paperwork. The more often I pressed the issue (i.e. each time I had to retrieve the data/signoff) the less frequent it occurred. I was never overly 'pleasant' about it (such as stating "that's okay"...) instead more along "try not to let it happen again..."
 
Q

QCAce

Re: How do you handle missing information?

Good posts so far......
Another option you may want to consider:
- change your process so they are not responsible for filling out the paperwork.

One thing I did was setup our CA process so that someone from Quality would always be assigned as the person responsible, (not for doing the work necessarily but for following-up with the right people).

It made it a lot easier to get CA's responded to. Another benefit was much better written problem descriptions, root causes and corrective action statements. :)
 
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LexieB

Re: How do you handle missing information?

Great responses so far!

On another related note: What do you do with the business owner who is involved with processes and doesn't want to fill out paperwork? I've been in a couple of smaller operations where that was a major problem and forms/entire procedure documentation was not filled out...for years. The only thing I could do was note the information myself and write "per John Owner" or something similar.
 
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