posted 22 March 1999 09:35 AM            

John LeBlanc,
Hi. Sorry for not answering you sooner. But we have been teasing it out and now I think I have the right answer;
Within the context of ISO 9001, Corrective and Preventive action are quite different. Obviously if you correct a cause of existing defects, then you prevent further defects. But, this is not ISO 9001ās definition of Preventive action. Why is there a special section? What is the essential difference?
Corrective action fixes causes of existing defects. It is an obvious need, supported by the need to remove obvious costs, customer dissatisfaction, scrap and waste, etc. It is causing pain and someone knows that Īthe buck stops hereā.
Preventive action is the real quality activity. The one that really works. The one mentioned as the primary purpose of the Standard in section 1, Scope, and the one in our quality policy and probably on yours.
But Īpreventiveā deals with things that might happen. There is no pain and no cost, yet we are going to take an engineer and put him/her onto searching for things that Īmightā happen, while there are a thousand things already happening and crying out for resources. And, even if he/she finds some Īpotentialā, the cost saving that justifies the investment can not be proven. You canāt prove a negative.
So, although this ĪPreventive actionā is an obvious thing to do, it needs a special section of itās own because it an action on itās own, it is not easy to do and it is not easy to measure but it is very easy to overlook or to push to one side and neglect. No one would notice.
So thatās the difference. And thatās why you have to submit it to Management review. Note that Corr Action does not have this stated requirement! Because, if you donāt have it, or donāt report it, it wonāt be reported anywhere, wonāt get much of a hearing anyway, wonāt be appreciated because it doesnāt seem to change anything, yet it is the most important thing we can do.

Note that, before you insert the preventive and corrective actions, you have to decide where to put them in the process. Corrective is obvious since it comes after the process has run. Prevention is earlier, Iād say. It starts before you do something, so as to avoid doing it wrong, but it continues as long as you continue doing that thing as long as you keep in mind the requirement of 4.14.1 to ensure the degree of what you do is appropriate. Donāt keep investigating a process which is well established when you have others which are newer and less understood or where the potential for catastrophe is greater.

Before considering corr. or preventive action, examine the existing process to see that it is well designed, well implemented and effective. Then design in; corr. and preventive action from the point of view of the end purpose of the process.

Finally, go through each phrase of 4.14 and see that everything is covered. If something is not, then donāt just patch it in, look to see why it is not. Maybe it is not appropriate or covered in some other way. Donāt design processes for ISO 9000 or for your registrar.

rgds, John C