Corrective action

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A corrective action is a change implemented to address a weakness identified in a management system. Normally corrective actions are instigated in response to a customer complaint, abnormal levels if internal nonconformity, nonconformities identified during an internal audit or adverse or unstable trends in product and process monitoring such as would be identified by SPC.

The process of determining a corrective action requires identification of actions that can be taken to prevent or mitigate the weakness. These actions are commonly referred to as countermeasures. Effectiveness is generally thought to be improved by addressing the root cause(s) of the problem (in some cases the root cause of occurrence and non-detection are considered separately).

Where possible an analysis is undertaken to identify other areas, products, processes or services which may be affected by the same problem and assess the feasibility of carrying the countermeasures across to those processes. Further, there may be systems in place to ensure that the problem is taken into account in future incidents where new products, processes or services are introduced, or existing products, processes or services are modified. This can be achieved through modification of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis FMEA or risk assessment documentation, where these are used.

In some settings, corrective action is used as an encompassing term that includes remedial actions, genuine corrective actions and preventive actions.