CAPA is the abbreviation for corrective and preventive actions. The term refers to the improvements to an organisation’s processes to mitigate undesirable situations like product nonconformities and is typically used in connection with quality assurance.
CAPA can provide a structure for organisations to follow to find the cause of a problem, solve it, and identify ways to prevent the problem from occurring in the future. Thus, organisations correct the issue and prevent it going forward.
Corrective action is a kind of extension of the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) approach. Step 1 of CA is to identify the root cause of the issue following a report of a nonconformity. Step 2 is to eliminate the root cause to prevent the nonconformity from recurring.
Preventive action is when you identify and remove potential sources of nonconformities before an undesirable situation has the chance to occur.
PA follows a similar design to the lessons learned/read-across approach. It emphasises the sharing of information across the organisation so that problems can be taken care of efficiently.
To put it simply, you could describe corrective as reactive, and preventative as proactive.
Because the two terms are lumped together in the same abbreviation, many assume that CA must precede PA. However, the two are not necessarily linked.
If anything, organisations should focus on PA first. Preventing undesirable incidents from occurring in the first place will eliminate the need for CA.
The CAPA method is relevant in multiple disciplines including:
The food processing, medical device development, and pharmaceutical industries are some of the industries in which CAPA is of particular importance.
CAPA is also hugely important in the context of quality management. Certain quality control systems and standards require meticulous documentation of these processes.
Adherence to an effective Corrective Action and Preventive Action process is essential in certain industries. It is a useful tool for companies to identify unconformities, resolve them, and prevent them from happening again.
A good CAPA process consists of seven key phases. These include:
CA and PA provide key industries with a step-by-step approach to dealing with non-conformities. Meeting the key objectives of CAPA is essential for proper quality management.
A great way of managing this process in a simple and strategic fashion is to use mobile-friendly audit and inspection tools. Such a tool can be used to document any and all observations (both of reactive and proactive nature) made during a CAPA process inspection and will help to provide organisational transparency on issues spotted, as well as how to prevent them going forward.
If you're looking for a platform to collect more data to monitor your organisation's CAPA processes, we've got you covered. Falcony is easy-to-use, boosts two-way communication, has customisable workflows, automated analytics, vast integration possibilities and more. Start your 30-day trial or contact us for more information:
We are building the world's first operational involvement platform. Our mission is to make the process of finding, sharing, fixing and learning from issues and observations as easy as thinking about them and as rewarding as being remembered for them.
By doing this, we are making work more meaningful for all parties involved.
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