Corrective Action

The term "corrective action" is used in quality assurance. It recognizes that, in any business, things can go wrong. Corrective action is the process by which the mistake is identified, the cause of the mistake is found and changes are made so that a repeat of the mistake becomes unlikely.

Mistakes for which the corrective action process is appropriate typically start to happen as a business grows. Businesses grow in cycles so that mistakes tend to happen in clusters. Typical cases when mistakes become frequent are:

• when a one-man business grows so that the owner can no longer keep track of everything;
• when a small business grows so large that an area, such as payroll for example, becomes too large for one person to handle;
• when a business enters a new area.

Corrective action requires that you first find and list the mistakes as they occur. Generally this is not difficult once the decision to collect such a list has been made. In addition to your employees, suppliers and customers will generally be happy to point out screw-ups because they will benefit when you fix the problems.

When a mistake is identified, it is necessary to also list why the mistake was made. Such reasons can range from lack of training for employees to lack of procedure for carrying out complex tasks. Whatever the reason, it is very important to establish why the mistake was made without attributing blame. If the mistakes become the fault of someone, the entire process grinds to a halt. If an employee doesn't have the training required, provide it - it is never the employee's fault he hasn't been trained.

Finally, the most difficult part is often to fix the problem so that it won't happen again. Training is a relatively easy solution but many mistakes are made inadvertently and the solutions require creative thinking. Sometimes a simple thing like colour coding or a change in packaging works. At other times complicated procedures have to be put in place and monitored.

A practical example of what has been done to take corrective action in an organized way can be found in this form. Develop a similar form for use in your company and watch costs drop and customer satisfaction increase.

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