790 Environmental Management Systems (EMS)

Corrective and Preventive Actions

Corrective actions involve doing something to eliminate or reduce a unique nonconformity (hazard or behavior) immediately.

Corrective maintenance is a typical action to take. Notice that corrective actions focus on fixing the surface causes of a nonconformity: They do not address the root causes.

Preventive actions involve the improvement of EMS root causes such as the policies, programs, plans, processes, procedures, and practices that have common effects on the EMS. Writing and implementing a preventive maintenance plan is an example of a preventive action. Preventive actions focus on fixing the root causes: not the surface causes.

Once you discover the root causes for a nonconformity, you must correct them in a timely manner. It's also important to communicate findings to employees and provide follow-up training for changes in the procedures that may result.

The steps in this corrective and preventive action process to help complete corrective actions include:

• Identify the problem - write the problem statement
• Identify the causes - both surface and root causes
• Devise actions- describe corrective and preventive actions
• Implement actions - carry out corrective and preventive actions
• Analyze actions - measure results and document
• Communicate actions - complete instruction and training
• Document actions - write an after-action report

Do the following to speed up the corrective and preventive action process:

• Use a portion of your management review meetings to review nonconformities, discuss causes and trends, identify corrective actions, and assign responsibilities.
• Be sure that your corrective and preventive action process specifies responsibilities and schedules for completion.
• Review your progress regularly and follow up to ensure that actions taken are effective.
• Find ways to get employees involved in the system improvement process.

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