Corrective Action Request (CAR) Form Examples and Discussion

[Joe Cruse]

C-P database

Okay, I'll give this a shot by attaching it to this post. I made it a zip file, so you'll need a zip program to get it out.

If you use it, let me know how you "enhanced" it, as you may give me ideas on how to make our version better.

As I'd said before, it's an MS Access database. It opens up with a "store front" form that is ready to enter data in. It has 3 tabs, which have different data entry set on each. It has it's own menu and tool bar. To get to a design view, you'll have to right click on the tool bar, and make it show a form design tool bar. It's fairly simple, but it's worked well for us for about 3 years, and it gives you an electronic format to keep and manipulate your data.

I took out our records and company references. I did put in a few "dummy" records, just to give a feel for it. If you use it, copy the main table, without the data, delete the old one, and rename the new one to the original name. You'll have to reset all relationships when you do this, so you might take a quick peek at the relationships first. But, like I said, it's a fairly simple database, so it's not very complicated. If you download it and have questions about it, feel free to holler

Joe

 

[Greg B]

Al Dyer said:

Greg,

I have sent you a form that combines CA/PA and addresses systemic process concerns. The form is straight forward and can be edited. (Word)

ASD...

Greg could I have a copy of the form also. I am in the midst of redesigning my system and would like to get back to basics.

Greg B

 

[Greg B]

Hi All,

I too am new to this site and wish I had found it earlier. I would love any forms that you could send me on Corrective or Preventative action. We are redesigning our systems and are aiming at keeping it simple.

What is the problem?
Solution to the problem
Action Plan
Follow up - Moniotring Plan

Greg B

 

[Claes Gefvenberg]

Hi Greg & Joe, and welcome to the Cove,

Joe, I had a quick look through your application. Like you say it's not very complicated, but no one said it had to be. It's sensibly designed and should be easy to maintain. It's also neat and easy to use. I like it. You obviously know your way around MS access.

I believe you asked for suggestions? I have one:

If you fill the database with many ongoing issues you may find it hard to keep track of the due dates. How about a list of ongoing issues? I came up with a similar application (Sorry, I won't be able to share it, because it's all in swedish, and the mere thought of translating it all makes me feel faint) to handle our internal audits, and set it up to post the following lists on our intranet:

• All active issues
• Active issues with a deadline within one month
• Active issues that have passed their deadlines

/Claes

 

[CarolX]

problem with the database

Hi Joe,

Welcome to the Cove!!!!

I downloaded your zip file. When I try to open it I get an error message stating "Unrecognized database format".

What version of Office is this? I am running Office97. Anyone else have this issue?

Thanks again, Joe.

Regards,
CarolX

 

[Greg B]

C-P Action Plan Database

Joe,

I had a look at your database and it looks very good. I have developed a larger Access database but it is now 43 MB and getting a bit too big. Don't bother asking for it as it is far too complicated to explain. This is one of the reasons I was looking at stripping our whole system back to basics.
Last year, I started a program to make our Work Instructions leaner and meaner by removing all uneeded junk from them. I am also removing duplicated info from the Quality Manual and Procedures. There was a lot of duplication so the Spring clean (9K2K) has been very good at making us sit up and review a rather large and cumbersome system (1500 controlled documents) . I have also been blessed with a Document Register that is making my life easier. We have placed it on our intranet so all personel have access. It is freeware. I'll have to locate the site.

Sorry I have begun to Waffle

Greg B

 

[Claes Gefvenberg]

Re: problem with the database

CarolX said:
---X---
I downloaded your zip file. When I try to open it I get an error message stating "Unrecognized database format".

What version of Office is this? I am running Office97. Anyone else have this issue?
---X---

Hi Carol,

Sorry to have to tell you this, but you seem to need Access 2000 or newer to read that file.

And a word of warning: If you decide to upgrade from Access 97 to a newer version, Whatever you do do not let the new version convert your old databases! If you do you will find that a lot of macros and buttons and things no longer work. There is a way around this, however:

Start a new database and import every table, question, form and whatever from your old base instead of converting it. That will work. Sheeezzz, Mickeysoft....

/Claes

 

[CarolX]

Re: Re: problem with the database

Claes Gefvenberg said:

Hi Carol,

Sorry to have to tell you this, but you seem to need Access 2000 or newer to read that file.

And a word of warning: If you decide to upgrade from Access 97 to a newer version, Whatever you do do not let the new version convert your old databases! If you do you will find that a lot of macros and buttons and things no longer work. There is a way around this, however:

Start a new database and import every table, question, form and whatever from your old base instead of converting it. That will work. Sheeezzz, Mickeysoft....

/Claes

Thanks Claes,

I have yet to dabble much in the fine world of Access databases. Things are a bit slow right now, so I may just do that. Thanks for the info!!

CarolX

 

[Joe Cruse]

Hi Carol.

Sorry I've not responded to you sooner, I'd not lurked here in a while, and then the Cove was off-line for a bit. Glad to see it up again.

Claes was right, you'll need a newer MS Access edition. I made that database in Access 2000. I'm running Access XP now, and I sometimes "blue screen" if I open it, because I have not updated it to the XP version (some of our users still on Access 2000).

He is also right about the "back door" method of simply opening a new database in your Access 97 and importing tables, forms, reports, and queries. Even though your Access version does not recognize this DB, it "Should" allow you to import objects from it.

If that does not work, and you still want to see, it, give me a holler and I'll try to do this in an older version of Access.

Claes, thanks for the suggestions, that's a good idea about tracking by due dates. I will put it in place. I'm also playing around with putting our complaint system in this DB. We use MS Word forms now, because some of our staff cannot seem to get into the technology age. We have a really nice documentation software package, but its complaint and CA/PA modules are not much to speak of.

Although there is a lot about MS (Mickeysoft was good) to bark about, it has some good stuff. I only took one computer course in college (Pascal 5.0), and I was able to learn on the fly all the Access stuff while making a LIMS for our lab. I need to take a VBA course.

Greg, your DB IS big. Are you only using one table to record the data. If so, you need to break it down into multiple, smaller tables. I did this with our LIMS, in a DB that held XRF data. I broke the table into two, and it halved the size of the DB!

Joe

 

[Suneela]

George:
Could you forward me a copy as well?

I am working on a similiar program, but currently it includes only
nonconformances from audits (internal and external) and maybe I
can get some ideas from your version.

Does anyone know if inhouse developed ACCESS based
programs used to maintain CA/PA and performance measures will
cause problems with ISO auditors?

I recently discovered the wonders of ACCESS and have been
going crazy creating databases to manage the entire quality
system...I just want to be sure that I won't be slammed by the auditors.

Thanks,
Suneela.