Deal with the instance the auditor wrote down and nothing else: remove the containers, find the product made with them, say where the parts are, hold the stock and test what you can. A correction does not change a label, a procedure or a person. That is the corrective action, and keeping the two apart is how you avoid a response that looks closed and is not.
Wednesday, 6:00 in the evening. Two containers of adhesive sit on the supervisor's desk with red tags on them. The auditor has gone. Fixing what was found is the one part of the response you can finish before dinner.
A correction deals with the specific instance the auditor wrote down. Here that is two containers and the product made with them. It does not change a label, a procedure or a person. That is the corrective action, and keeping the two apart is how you avoid a response that looks closed and is not.
What the correction covers
- Remove the containers. Both come off the line, get tagged and go to the quarantine shelf the same day.
- Find the product made with them. Station 12 used its container for 19 days past expiry at about 140 parts a day, which is 2,660 parts. Station 27 used its container for 41 days at about 85 a day, 3,485 parts. Together that is 6,145 parts.
- Say where the parts are. 4,300 have shipped and 1,845 are in stock. Hold the stock.
- Test what you can. Peel test 20 pieces from stock for each station, 40 in all. All 40 passed.
- Tell the customer. Parts made with expired adhesive have shipped. Send them the numbers and the test data and let them decide what they want done with their parts.
The count of parts is an estimate from days and daily rates, and the response should say so. Write down how you got each number. A number the auditor cannot trace is worth less than a rougher one they can.
Keep it separate
Do not add the new label, the weekly check or the retraining to the correction. They answer a different question. The correction says what you did about the two containers. The corrective action says why it cannot happen again. When the two blur together, the response looks strong and the auditor still cannot find where the system changed.
The correction is also dated. Containers removed on day 0, parts located on day 1, test results back on day 5. A correction with no dates reads as intention.
Read more: containment vs correction vs corrective action. In the free audit finding response builder this is the Correction section, and the builder flags a correction that reads like a system change instead of a fix for the instance found.
The mistake to avoid
Treating the correction as the response. A removed container makes the finding look closed. The next audit finds the third one.
- Open the correction on your last finding.
- Check it names what was done and the date.
- Move any system change out of it.
Open the printable Monday Board
Related on ShopFloorOps
The plant, the audit, the finding and every number in this book (finding CAR-0417) are a made-up example. The tool sidebars show ShopFloorOps tools, which I make and sell. Every chapter teaches the step itself, so you can use your own forms. New to a term? See the quality glossary.