Published on Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Questioning if Verification Activities are Supported in Corrective Action

If you are using our Corrective Action module and all of the phases we have included, there is a verification step in the process. If you are using our module in Fast Track mode, then this is considered a record keeping process and YOUR process must include the verification activity since you would not be using our standard workflow.

The verification activity comes right after you have recorded the actions taken and then you submit it to the Final Approval Authority (FAA) for verification of effectiveness before the FAA can close the CAR. The images below are taken directly from our Corrective Action application. Additionally, your team can perform initial verification activities and record the results on the Actions Taken tab prior to submitting it to the FAA for approval to ensure it was effective PRIOR to requesting verification, but that would likely depend upon your defined process.

 

 

This makes your work phase area look like this:

 

 

Please note how the Most Recent Remarks mirror those in the Remarks window above.

You can also add your evidence of effectiveness as a supporting document to the CAR via the Other Documents tab as shown in the next image.

 

 

We encourage you to do this so auditors can’t say there is no verification step involved or that you can’t show you verified the actions. If you have associated the verification activities, it is difficult for them to say you didn’t at least try. Your actions may in fact not be very effective but they can’t say you didn’t perform the step. You also have the option of recording any additional verification steps taken by the FAA in the closing comments. Please note the Work phase Instructions in the dialog below. If the verification activities find the actions are insufficient, you have the option to reject them and return them to the CAR Owner for additional actions. I chose to complete and add in my Completion Comments.

 

The comments you enter in the Complete CAR dialog will be displayed on the CAR (electronic view or hard copy print) as shown below.


Here is a flow chart of the CAR process and highlighted where the verification step is in the process as well as provided a listing of the seven phases of corrective action. Verification is step 6 of 7.

 

The seven work phases of Corrective Action –

1. Nonconformance Review: The Gatekeeper reviews the Nonconformance report received from the Originator and decides whether to pass it on to the Final Approval Authority for disposition.

2. Nonconformance Disposition: The Final Approval Authority decides if the Nonconformance Report is indeed a Corrective Action Request and assigns it to a Corrective Action Owner

3. Corrective Action: Owner performs the bulk of the work on a CAR here. S/He records any containment actions, assembles the corrective action team, and can submit recommended actions to the Final Approval Authority.

4. Recommended Corrective Actions Disposition (optional): If the Corrective Action Owner makes recommended actions, the Final Approval Authority can approve or reject those recommendations in this work phase.

5. Corrective Action Completion: The Corrective Action Owner records his actions taken in this work phase and submits them to the Final Approval Authority for verification of their effectiveness.

6. Corrective Action Verification: The Final Approval Authority verifies the effectiveness of the Corrective Action Owner's corrective actions taken and completes the CAR.

7. Corrective Action Disposition: The Final Approval Authority decides if preventive action is necessary and assigns a Preventive Action Owner. If no preventive action is required, then the CAR can be closed.

 

Copyright 2019 by Waypoint Global LLC

 

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