Talking with other professionals, I find that there is confusion between these 3 items, corrective action, preventive action and preventive maintenance.
Corrective action treats a nonconformity or problem that has already occurred. The problem exists. The nonconformity lives and needs to be addressed. See corrective action system for ISO 9001 requirements.
Preventive maintenance focuses on the care of machines. It is a system that protects machines from breaking down. ISO 9001 auditors do not look at preventive maintenance as preventive action. Preventive maintenance is important for the infrastructure (resource management) section of the ISO 9001 standard.
Preventive action determines and eliminates potential causes of non conformities. This means the non conformity has not yet happen. If you act to prevent a problem from occurring then this is a preventive action.
The ISO 9001 standard requires you to take preventive action to eliminate potential nonconformities.
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A documented procedure is required for ISO 9001 certification. Within the procedure explain how your company
You must have a documented system that covers CAPA management systems. The same document could be used for both. Be sure there are separate sections for corrective action and preventive action.
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A FMEA (Failure Mode Effects and Analysis) can drive preventive action. This is a tool that scores potential failures. Preventive actions will occur by lowering the potential failure scores.
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