Definition of Corrective Action
Corrective Action is action taken to eliminate the cause* of a nonconformity and prevent reoccurrence.
* There may be more than one cause of a nonconformity.
Corrective action is the process of identifying why the nonconformity occurred, estimating the risk of it re-occurring, and preventing it from happening in the future, if appropriate.
Corrective actions should be documented in a structured way, and linked to the NonConformance Report (NCR) of the originating non-conformity.
This process is often called Root Cause Analysis.
CAPA (Corrective And Preventive Action) is another commonly-used term that is used interchangably with Corrective Action.
Corrective action should not be confused with the disposition, which is the outcome of the review process of a particular nonconformity - what we will do in this case.