Corrective Action Process has become a way to "annoy" other persons

Hello

In our company the corrective action process has become a way to "annoy" other persons

if person X doesnt fill a form in the required time , person Z fill a request for corrective action , and so forth

I tried to explain that corrective actions should be requested for non conforming product, sustomer complaints etc ...but the behavior above keeps happening

Please help ...

What can i do to make it stop ...it's ruining the mood in the company and everyone is seeing the corrective actions as a beating stick now

Ragnarok said:

Hello

In our company the corrective action process has become a way to "annoy" other persons

if person X doesnt fill a form in the required time , person Z fill a request for corrective action , and so forth

I tried to explain that corrective actions should be requested for non conforming product, sustomer complaints etc ...but the behavior above keeps happening

Please help ...

What can i do to make it stop ...it's ruining the mood in the company and everyone is seeing the corrective actions as a beating stick now

Click to expand...

How will this work ...
Call X and Z
Request for timely filling of forms
Request that complaints are to be discussed and not filled into a corrective action request.
Destroy the CA request in the presence of X and Z
X Z ... Both with you

Sounds like passive aggressive behavior - why talk to someone when you can fill out a form? I agree with Somashekar that facilitating communication may help the situation. It may also be worthwhile to try to determine a root cause of why the form is being abused. Are there animosities between people or departments? Are there competing priorities? Do some groups feel like they don't have a voice? Is the process misunderstood? Is misuse widespread or limited to a few individuals?

You may need a CAR for your CAR process

Ragnarok said:

Hello

In our company the corrective action process has become a way to "annoy" other persons

if person X doesnt fill a form in the required time , person Z fill a request for corrective action , and so forth

I tried to explain that corrective actions should be requested for non conforming product, sustomer complaints etc ...but the behavior above keeps happening

Please help ...

What can i do to make it stop ...it's ruining the mood in the company and everyone is seeing the corrective actions as a beating stick now

Click to expand...

Has your company also gone beyond the QMS requirements in general? There are probably many forms that are not part of the QMS (e.g. reimbursements, vacation requests).

Education and training. Hold "lunch and learn" meeting for all staff.

Ragnarok said:

Hello

In our company the corrective action process has become a way to "annoy" other persons

if person X doesnt fill a form in the required time , person Z fill a request for corrective action , and so forth

I tried to explain that corrective actions should be requested for non conforming product, sustomer complaints etc ...but the behavior above keeps happening

Please help ...

What can i do to make it stop ...it's ruining the mood in the company and everyone is seeing the corrective actions as a beating stick now

Click to expand...

Good question. We struggle with that also.

Some ideas to consider:

1. Training. Teach the difference between common and special causes of variation, and tolerance for one-off errors.
2. Separating the handling of NCs from the CARs, and/or CARs from PARs, and
3. Empowering process owners to dismiss unfounded CARs without investigation.

There was an excellent article in QD a few months ago. The comments at the end are also good.

And if you find a magic bullet, please post it.

Ragnarok said:

Hello

In our company the corrective action process has become a way to "annoy" other persons

if person X doesnt fill a form in the required time , person Z fill a request for corrective action , and so forth

I tried to explain that corrective actions should be requested for non conforming product, sustomer complaints etc ...but the behavior above keeps happening

Please help ...

What can i do to make it stop ...it's ruining the mood in the company and everyone is seeing the corrective actions as a beating stick now

Click to expand...

First question:
Just two people doing this or is it company wide? I suspect only two are involved. The dynamics can fit any of several scenarios I can imagine. Most likely, the Kwality Kop is powerless to force the tardy form filler and not assertive enough to approach face to face to discuss the matter. There may be other clashes and this is the only one coming to your attention.

If it is just between two people (tardy form filler and Kwality Kop who likes "gotcha"), it is a personality problem to be dealt with by either "friendly discussion" with the parties by colleague or boss.
OR
intrusion by boss who says "straighten out or BOTH of you hit the road!"

If it is company wide, there is a problem in the system not apparent from your post and we need more data.

In terms of WHAT may be the focus of N/C, certainly a failure to file timely reports can have repercussions throughout the quality system. Are the reports necessary or merely busy work that gets filed and never read? If necessary, are they easy or difficult to complete in the allotted time? Is the tardy form filler competent or incompetent, trained or untrained? Do all parties know and agree on the importance of the form? (From CEO down to janitor!)

IMPORTANT:
lots and lots of possible scenarios - proceed with caution until you know the WHOLE story - think of Deming's SoPK (System of Profound Knowledge.)

Ragnarok said:

Hello

In our company the corrective action process has become a way to "annoy" other persons

if person X doesnt fill a form in the required time , person Z fill a request for corrective action , and so forth

I tried to explain that corrective actions should be requested for non conforming product, sustomer complaints etc ...but the behavior above keeps happening

Please help ...

What can i do to make it stop ...it's ruining the mood in the company and everyone is seeing the corrective actions as a beating stick now

Click to expand...

Reengine the process or activity on what really impacts your QMS processes. Probably you may want to review your documented procedure of corrective action as well. Try to get advice and suggestions from all personnel of the organization on how to make the process or activity really effective ( and efficient) with value added for whole the organization. In brief, Keep it So Simple!

qusys said:

...Probably you may want to review your documented procedure of corrective action as well...

Click to expand...

Agreed here, and from the OP comments is seems like the current process is allowing CARs to be "opened" without screening and approval by QA. One simple step may be an addition to your SOP stating something like "While requests for CAPA may be made by anyone in the organization, QA is responsible for approving such requests based on impact (and/or other sound criteria) to most effectively deploy the resources of the Company to address identified issues..."

Every situation in quality always seems to have an "it depends" element that requires more information to properly diagnose... AKA Root Cause Analysis is needed. It is not clear that your Corrective Action process is working properly in the first place. Do people not have time to complete assigned actions? Are the actions considered a low priority? Do people need help in using the quality tools to find root cause or develop a solution?

To me, quality by nagging implies priorities are out of alignment. Lack of time, priority to make time, or training implies a management commitment issue. If corrective action is not being performed in a timely manner then what is management's response? Both supervisory and upper management have to make time for improvement. Is quality a priority? or is it something that gets in the way of production? The fact that nagging must occur for the quality wheel to spin is a symptom. What is the root cause?

Ragnarok said:

I tried to explain that corrective actions should be requested for non conforming product, sustomer complaints etc

Click to expand...

I find myself wondering if you are trying to explain "what corrective actions should be requested for" because your CAPA procedure does not explain this clearly.

Also, that "etc" makes me a little queasy....