Our investigation process is purely reactive to undesired consequences, but our corrective action(s) process can turn it into a PROACTIVE activity. It takes a level of safety maturity to move in this direction. It will come naturally once that maturity level is reached and the workplace strongly desires (and respects) to be a LEARNING culture. We do this by…
ensuring that the corrective actions are implemented in all locations where they can control a hazard/risk and not only where the incident/undesired consequence(s) occurred. This means that the business SHARES its learnings across the entire business, something that lawyers do not like. But an authentic learning culture sees the value in implementing these corrective actions BEFORE another similar incident occurs at another location.
I have always used the acronym CAP (Corrective Action Plan), but today a lot of businesses are using the acronym CAPA to better reflect this forward way of thinking about their process. CAPA standards for Corrective And Preventive Actions. As stated above, taking these corrective actions and implementing them in locations other than where the incident/consequence occurred turns that action into a PREVENTIVE action.
Regardless of the approach taken, a successful corrective action process requires management to be involved at the appropriate level and willing to take responsibility and allocate adequate resources for corrective actions.
