Where's the Preventive Action!?

"Where's the Preventive Action!?" the Client asked when I showed them my NCR.

"There is no Preventive Action. It's only a single NCR." I responded.

"But ALL NCRs need to have Preventive Action." insisted my Client.

We have had this conversation a few times over the years - and the whole thing started with the early ISO9001 terms of Corrective and Preventive Action. I blame the standards bodies for the use of the terms "Corrective" vs "Preventive" - it has confused more people than any other Quality concept.

Words Matter

Let's look at the common usage of the terms:

• "Corrective" is widely used in non-Quality terms to mean correcting or fixing something - we hear about "corrective surgery to prevent a limp", and

• "Preventive" is used to prevent something from happening - "preventive maintenance of engines" makes them last longer by reducing failure.

This has widely led Non-Quality people to believe that fixing the issue is Corrective Action and that stopping it from recurring is Preventive Action.

Quality Words Confuse

When these terms were coined in regard to Quality Product- and System- non-conformances, they meant something different - for the first decade of my Quality career (from BS5750 to early ISO9002) I was taught that all non-conformance required "Corrective and Preventive Actions". The definition was:

• Correction: Action to eliminate a detected nonconformity.

• Corrective action: Action to eliminate the cause of a nonconformity and to prevent recurrence.

• Preventive action: Action to eliminate the cause of a potential nonconformity or other potential undesirable situation.

So our overly-complex NCR forms were devised with THREE types of mandatory action:

1. Remedial/Correction Actions - Rectify the defect

2. Corrective Action - Prevent the defect from recurring (maybe "Toolbox talk the team"?)

3. Preventive Action - Prevent the defect from recurring (maybe "Update the procedure"?)

The end result was confusion and bad data. If people don't understand what the box means then they can hardly add accurate, consistent data.

The new ISO9001:2015 Standard definitions

The updated ISO 9001:2015 standard removed the requirement for preventive actions - and replaced it with the term "Risk Based Thinking" - which is what "preventive action" was trying to describe in its use of "potential nonconformities".

This clarifies that whilst corrective action prevents recurrence, preventive action prevents occurrence in the first place. Corrective action is carried out after a nonconformity has already occurred, whereas preventive action is planned with the goal of preventing a nonconformity in its entirety.

The Construction Industry's Prevention Action systems are all about risk-based up-front Planning:

• Sharing Knowledge from NCR data and past projects

• Technical Risk Assessment Management

• Work Method Planning

• Inspection and Test Planning

• Training and Development (Technical Training)

These are fed by data from our Non-conformance systems – but NCRs are only one of the inputs into the new Preventive Action.

If you find you have a lot of delivery damage on your product from a particular supplier, NCR corrective actions may result in specific actions on your project.

Your analysis of NCRs may suggest that on future projects you fabricate these elements in a completely different way, or in a different location.

So sorry, each NCR does not need preventive action on its own - but we will learn from all our NCRs and improve.