Corrective Action

An action taken to eliminate the potential cause of a nonconformity or failure that has not yet occurred but is anticipated based on risk assessment, trend analysis, or lessons learned from similar equipment or industry experience. Preventive actions are proactive measures designed to prevent problems before they manifest.

A systematic investigation methodology used to identify the fundamental underlying cause(s) of a failure, incident, or undesired outcome. RCA goes beyond the immediate or proximate cause to uncover the latent organizational, procedural, or design factors that created the conditions for the event. Common RCA techniques include 5-Why analysis, fishbone (Ishikawa) diagrams, fault tree analysis, and barrier analysis.

The progression of an action item through defined stages from creation to closure: Open (created, assigned), In Progress (work started), Completed (work finished, pending verification), Verified (effectiveness confirmed), and Closed (formal closure with evidence). Each transition is a governance event with audit trail, ensuring that actions are tracked to completion and their effectiveness is verified.

A closed-loop process for systematically reporting failures, analyzing their root causes, implementing corrective actions, and verifying that those actions effectively prevent recurrence. FRACAS captures failure data, triggers investigation based on severity, tracks corrective action implementation, and feeds lessons learned back into the design, maintenance, and operating procedures.

An action specifically designed to reduce the probability or consequence of an identified risk. Mitigation actions differ from corrective actions (which address root causes of occurred failures) in that they proactively reduce risk for potential future events. They are tracked in the risk register and linked to the specific risk they address.