Initiating control tests prior to shipment of product - PA
Anything happening after product is in customer hands is CA (unless you use this information on another product prior to it's going to a customer - then for that 2nd product it would be PA but the action for the 1st product is still CA).
EDIT - ADDED INFO from DNV Certification Interpretation of ISO 9001:2000:
Corrective Action (CA) - Action taken to eliminate the cause of an EXISTING nonconformance, defect, or other undesireable situation in order to prevent recurrence.
Corrective action should cover the following areas within an organization's quality mgmt system:
> Corrective action to deal with detected nonconformities relating to products, processes, and QMS.
> Customer complaints
> Supplier corrective actions
> Product and/or service complaints
> Process control deviations
> Actions related to internal audits
Preventive Action (PA) - Action taken to eliminate the causes of POTENTIAL nonconformance, defects, or other undesirable situations in oder to prevent occurrence.
It is critiacal that the organization truly understand and embrace the philosophies of PA and not take CA issues and try to call them PA measures.
Specify the appropriate sources of information that would be analyzed in order to detect and eliminate potential causes of nonconformities. These sources of information could include, but are not limited to, the following:
> Nonconformity records
> Inspection and test records
> Process monitoring results
> Audit observations
> Results of customer satisfaction surveys
> Field, service, or customer complaints
> Regulartory authority or customer observations
> Observations and reports by personnel
> Sub-contractor problems
Once the sources of info have be identified,ensure that they are reviewed and analyzed to ID trends that may be adverse to quality. Based on this analysis, identify improvement opporunities and set aobut hte process of implementing PA measures. The measures should be reviewed and analyzed following their implementation so as to verify the effectivenss of the actions taken.
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Sorry to be so long-winded, but couldn't find the best way to shorten without losing important detail. Hope this is meaningful to you. - Eileen