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The Preventive Action Crystal Ball

Posted by Oscar Combs in Risk Watch 19 Nov 2014

preventative-actionAnyone involved with any type of management system has run across the term, preventive action. This term leaves many professionals scratching their head, as to what a preventive action actually is? I must admit, the term and its concept can be quite confusing and abstract. Webster’s dictionary defines preventive as, “protecting, as against failure: ward off. To keep (someone) from acting.

We’ll get back to the term (someone) in a minute. The American Society for Quality (ASQ) defines preventive action as, “an action taken to remove or improve a process to prevent potential future occurrences of a nonconformance. The quality management system standard ISO 9001:2008, clause 8.5.3 preventive action states: “The organization shall determine action to eliminate the cause of potential nonconformities in order to prevent their occurrence. Preventive actions shall be appropriate to the effects of the potential problems.” Again that word “potential” appears. Webster defines potential as, “not yet actual or real. How does one eliminate the cause of a nonconformity that is not yet actual or real? It must be through the use of the PREVENTIVE ACTION CRYSTAL BALL… right? Unfortunately there is no preventive action crystal ball, but we do have three powerful tools at our disposal that can see into the future. They are: intuition, experience and education and foresight.

Intuition

What is intuition? Webster defines it as, “the capacity of knowing without the use of rational processes.” This may be one reason that makes it so difficult to get our heads around the concept. We as human beings are rational. We frequently operate by being stimulated, i.e. something happens and then we are stimulated to respond (corrective action).

 

Using ones intuition is quite the opposite. Nothing has happened and everything seems to be going very smooth and business is operating as normal…and then all of a sudden catastrophe strikes, seemingly out of thin air. Well, we all as intelligent human beings know that things do not just happen without some type of prior indication.

 

The issue question is, whose stopping long enough to notice potential causal factors that could have allowed the prevention of a nonconformity? We are all busy enough as it is without thinking about what could go wrong. This is where a keen intuition can allow one to see what no one else does.

 

I recall once when I was a Quality Manager for a company, there was a situation where certain parts were outsourced to a fabrication company in China. This move was to save the company millions of dollars, so Management was so caught up in the transaction and not necessarily concerned about ensuring certain quality controls were in place. Once I became aware of the relationship, my intuition kicked-in and I requested that we perform an external audit of their facility to verify their work practices and standards used. Well this multi-million dollar savings project could not wait, so it proceeded without the initial supplier evaluation.

 

Management’s thought was that the fabrication facility had competent and trained employees and since the United States imports so many products from China we should proceed and we could verify later. My intuition told me that this was a recipe for catastrophe. Catastrophe occurred about eight months later and got progressively worse when we started receiving finished components where welds were not meeting the safe weight bearing capacities they were designed for. Welds on pad eyes began popping off and equipment started falling, causing several injuries. To make a long story short, the customer stopped our operation and required that all welds of the entire assembly be inspected at the company’s cost. The customer also put the company on penalty and the company lost a tremendous amount of money and injured several employees in the process.

 

The company did decide to proceed with performing the external audit to assess the fabrication facility’s quality control and several concerns were found. Concerns included: use of weld standards, inspection and testing procedures and welders’ training records. The company that I was employed with sent an entire team to the China facility, complete with engineers. I believe this is a perfect example of what ISO 9001:2008, clause 8.5.3 preventive action means when it states: “The organization shall determine action to eliminate the cause of potential nonconformities in order to prevent their occurrence. Preventive actions shall be appropriate to the effects of the potential problems. The company had an opportunity to implement preventive action, but decided to put their focus on corrective actions.

Experience and Education

Sometimes in business we seem to discount our experience and education when looking to implement preventive actions. Conventional wisdom is sometimes overlooked in the name of productivity, profits, lack of time or some other namesake. Developing preventive actions actually take more time and forethought then developing corrective actions. It is always more cost and time effective to measure nine time and cut once. Some would argue that its more cost and time effective to measure once, but they are not thinking about the subsequent nine cuts due to the wrong measurement.

 

Business Managers must utilize their experience and education when predicting causes of potential nonconformities. Back to my example, when I found out that my employer was outsourcing part of the manufacturing process to a company in China my experience and education as a Quality Manager kicked-in. Once I heard about the outsourcing, I immediately thought about clause 4.1 of the ISO 9001 standard which states, “where an organization chooses to outsource any process that affects product conformity with requirements, the organization shall ensure control over such processes. Control of such outsourced processes shall be identified within the quality management system. The company also had a full staff of engineers and procurement specialist, which should have also had the same thoughts due to their experience and education in their fields.

 

Now back Webster’s dictionary definition of preventive, “to keep (someone) from acting.” From experience we know that human beings are often integral inputs and outputs to any process. They are the ones actually doing the work or in my example doing the welding. I mentioned that as a result of the pad eye failures, the company determined there were also issues with employee training and licensing. This being said, the issue of employee experience, training, and education should always be verified as a preventive action. If employees are not competent, nonconformities can be predicted very easily and the employee should be prevented from acting until the preventive action is taken.

 

Foresight

Webster defines foresight as, “the act of looking forward. concern for the future: prudence.” This definition points out not only is it important to predict potential causes of nonconformity; it’s prudent for an organization to do so. The problem is that many organizations are shortsighted and don’t attempt to look beyond the actual or tangible. Developing preventive actions requires that the organization encourage and create an environment for employees to exercise foresight.

Many times the employees with foresight are seen as pessimistic or antagonistic, but developing preventive action requires an individual to think critically. Many times these individuals will not fit within the bell curve. The foresight is what allows a person to predict potential causal factors of nonconformity. In my example with my previous employer, I did not predict that we would have issues with poor welds, but I did have the foresight to understand that if we were outsourcing a manufacturing process we needed to ensure certain quality controls were in place prior to commencing with the outsourcing, which was a preventive action.

 

In conclusion, preventive actions do not require a crystal ball. The crystal ball is an individual’s combination of intuition, experience and education and foresight. Intuition is our ability to know without the use of a rational process or responding to something that has already happened. Our experience and education is developed throughout our careers and we must call upon these tools to predict potential causes of nonconformity. The last tool is foresight. We must think predictive and preventive to develop sound preventive actions. We have to stop long enough to analyze things in the midst of the perceived calm. I always tell people when things are quiet, that’s when we should be making preventive noises. As I look into my crystal ball, it tells me that you will develop good preventive actions in the future.

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