QIC Guru

The ISO 9001:2008 stand requires follow-up for effectiveness when corrective or preventive actions have taken place. Many companies do a great job of identifying corrective and preventive actions, some even excel at following through and completing these actions. But where most organizations fall short, is following up to see if what they have enacted, actually had the desired affect and corrected or prevented something from happening again or in the future.

Some organizations do follow-up for effectiveness, but never take the time to record the results of this activity. There are several areas in the ISO 9001:2008 which actually require follow-up actives take place:

1. Section 8.2.2 Internal Audit states  follow-up actives shall include the verification of actions and the reporting of verification results.

2. Section 8.5.2 Corrective Action states that a documented procedure shall be established to define requirements for reviewing the effectiveness of the corrective actions taken, and records of the results of actions taken.

3. Section 8.5.3 Preventive Action states that a documented procedure shall be established to define the requirements for reviewing the effectiveness of the preventive actions taken, and records of the results of actions taken.

If you are certified to ISO 9001 or some other quality management system, my question to you is this; Why wouldn’t you want to know if the time and energy you put into implementing a corrective or  preventive action actual paid off? If you are going to invest the time and money to have a quality management system which is certified to a standard, shouldn’t you get something out of it? Without the data to support your decisions, aren’t you just spinning your wheels?