This is the final clause in the ‘All you need to know’ series. The series starts here with clause 4: https://simplifyiso.com/all-you-need-to-know-clause-4-0/

Most of what you have in place for Improvement will work just fine here. The jaw dropper is the removal of ‘Preventive Action’. In all my years since 1992 I can honestly say that I saw only one or two good examples of ‘Preventive Action’. And they were formal programs like 5S, Lean and Six Sigma.

Today, TC 176, the authors of ISO 9001 view our entire management system as the preventive action tool, especially with Clause 6.1 (Planning for Risk and Opportunities). I imagine if any organizations are reaping benefits from their Preventive Action program that they will leave them in place. Test your results from these activities to make sure that your Preventive Actions are actually saving you more money than they are costing you to develop.

Finally, a new box you may want to consider adding to your non-conformance report is one that reads, “Could we have seen this coming?” In other words, review your risk assessment (RA) activities related to the non-conformance to see if you need to tweak your RA process. Maybe there’s no way you could have anticipated it, or maybe you could have ‘…if only we had considered…’

To find out if your ISO life can be simpler…

Here’s the link to our Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7I1MLs8oH0&t=19s