The high cost of low quality and product rejection are one of the major challenges that face organizations. Solving this through improved quality management is the right approach.
Many businesses are pursuing master quality management and global synchronization to create efficient and standardised integrity that can in turn mitigate the hidden costs of inaccurate and flawed product quality.
The delivery of enduring quality in products and systems in today’s marketplace presents challenges and opportunities. Market conditions demand constant agility and innovation in product development.
Readers of this article will learn about: the difference between the CORRECTION and CORRECTIVE ACTIONS, since many organizations (manufactures, contractors, and service providers) fail to differentiate between these two actions. While Correction deals with the current problem, Corrective Action works on the Quality Management System (QMS) to prevent the recurrence of problems in the future.
CORRECTION: Correct Nonconforming Product
Correction is made to the nonconforming product to fix the noncompliance of the product and to meet the requirements. The reverification of the repaired product is required. Below is an example of the correction of a nonconforming product: “Defect in the shell of a pressure vessel.”
| Non conformity: Defect in a shell of a pressure vessel.
Correction: + Develop repair method statement and submit for company approval; + Perform repair work as per approved repair method statement; + Send a notification to assigned inspector; +Perform an approved NDT test on the repaired area. |
Note: Correction does not improve the QMS and does not support the organization to avoid such a problem again.
CORRECTIVE ACTIONS:
Corrective action is taken to investigate the root cause and prevent problem recurrence. You may be aware of the term “repetitive violation,” which happens when the QMS processes are not followed rigorously to investigate and eliminate root causes. QMS tools such as 5 Whys, Failure mode and Effects analysis, Fault tree analysis, Pareto analysis … etc., are used to investigate the root causes of the problem.
Senior management needs to be involved in the corrective action review and to ensure that corrective actions are identified and implemented. This can be achieved by direct involvement in the major findings review and management review meeting, at the very least.
The organization also needs to measure the effectiveness of the corrective actions.
Below is an example of corrective action on the above noncompliance to ensure that mistakes will not be repeated.
| Root cause: The Ultrasonic test was not conducted as per the standard due to missing guidelines and proper training.
Corrective action: + Develop a work instruction based on international standard and implement for all future orders. + Perform training for receiving inspector on the new work instruction. |
Requirement of Corrective Action is stated in ISO 9001:2015 clause 10.2 (Nonconformity and Corrective action), where the organization evaluates the need for action to eliminate the cause(s) of nonconformity so that it does not recur or occur elsewhere, to prevent recurrence.
In each effective QMS, a documented procedure shall be established to define the following requirements:
The QMS team needs to ensure that it is not only the correction system that is implemented but also corrective action as per the ISO requirement. This will improve product performance, avoid the cost of the rework and repetitive nonconformity, enhance the team’s knowledge, and increase teamwork during problem investigation. Effective implantation of corrective actions leads to the organization’s performance improvements.
Quality Management is working to help achieve greater value and performance at less cost from investments in products, systems, and software delivery and manufacturing.
Bio:
Mr. Mutairi is a senior quality manager at Aramco.