CAPA (corrective and preventive action)

Where an NCR deals with the bad parts in front of you, corrective action deals with why they happened. A typical corrective action records the problem, the containment, the root cause analysis, the action taken, and a check later on that the action actually worked.

Standards treat this slightly differently. ISO 9001 and AS9100 require corrective action and handle prevention through risk-based thinking rather than a separate preventive action clause. ISO 13485, used in medical devices, still calls out corrective action and preventive action explicitly. Customers may also issue a supplier corrective action request (SCAR) that requires a formal response.

In a small shop the hardest part is closing the loop: actions get assigned and never verified. Traveler's NCR and corrective action workflow is designed to keep cause, action, and closure on the same record as the nonconformance, linked to the part.