The Differences Between Corrective and Preventive Actions [ How to Formulate ]

In every business organization, it is essential that the management formulates or practices corrective and preventive action procedures in order to avoid and/or decrease the risk that each latent hazards contain. This is in order to prioritize the safety and security of each and every person in the workplace.

In order to formulate these corrective and preventive actions, the management should gather the teams or the department heads for a meeting regarding the risks and hazards that are faced and yet to be encountered. This is a way to fill in the gap in terms of communication between the different departments and help each other to be aware of the possible threats that they might be facing.

The plans and procedures that are brought up in the meeting should be noted or written in the corrective action forms in order to document these and use as reference when circumstances occurs. These action plans should also be practiced in order for everybody to have fully understanding on how these actions are carried out.

The Difference Between Corrective and Preventive Actions

There are various of examples or situations where corrective and preventive actions are applied. To have a better understanding of how these two actions are differentiated, here is a situation as an example.

A company was reportedly burnt down, and the cause of fire was due to faulty equipment or heavy machinery. The main reason that we could conclude from this situation is that the company did not have proper maintenance of their equipment.

The destruction would have been prevented if actions were implemented before it happened. Since parts of the company have burnt down, it leaves them no choice but to start from scratch again. Now that they have figured out the cause of such tragedy, they are then to make corrective actions in order to avoid the same thing from happening again.

With a brief example given to you, by now you have understood the difference between the corrective and preventive actions. To sum it all up, corrective actions pertain to the work operations which prevent the recurrence of the same situations. And preventive actions pertain to the work operations which prevents any circumstances from occurring.

How to Formulate Corrective Preventive Actions

Each and every company should appoint particular teams who are in-charge of making sure of the health and wellness inside the workplace. These teams are appointed for the maintenance of the equipment, the surroundings which includes every corner of the company, and the employees or workers.

The management should conduct a monthly meeting or when it is necessary to have a control risk assessments of risks and hazards found in the company. This is to make sure that each and everyone’s safety and security is promoted and prioritized.

The management should also conduct several training in order to make sure that every one on the team are well trained when it comes to circumstances that needs full focus and attention. Since incidents occur at the most unexpected times, the conducted training will keep each and every team to be sharp and vigilant when these happen.

In every meeting conducted, it is better to keep all things noted or documented using the action forms. And with training conducted, each and every one’s performance should be appraised with performance appraisal forms to make sure that every one of them is qualified.

These corrective and preventive actions are not only applicable to the workplace, but also in a school/university. In fact, another way of making sure that everyone is safe and secured, a drill is conducted at least once a month in order for everyone to be oriented with what to do when certain circumstances such as natural disasters occur.

In a company, university, mall, and any other organizations, drills for fires and earthquakes are practiced. This is in order for everyone to be aware of what could possibly happen. In this way, people will remain calm instead of panicking when the real thing arrives.

Another way of making sure that people do not forget about the safety precautions is with the use of the posters about the preventive procedures. These posters should be required to be posted in every offices of the company and in every corner of the school and university. This is to remind everyone what they should do and where they should go when unexpected occurrence of different circumstances are encountered.

The purpose of documenting these formulated actions is to make sure that everything that was discussed in the monthly meeting reviews are carried out accordingly and as expected. This is also used to compare the previous to the current situations that were encountered in order to have a better solution in controlling and managing these.

Applying Corrective Preventive Actions at Home

The occurrence of different circumstances does not limit to the workplaces or in schools, these are also encountered even at home and just about anywhere you go. Now, here are ways to avoid these circumstances form occurring at home and to keep your family safe at all times:

• Keep sharp objects away from the reach of children.
• Secure a fire extinguisher in case there is/are fire in which you are not in control.
• Keep the doors close to avoid any bacteria or insets that can bring sickness to any member of the family, and keep them locked at night to avoid thieves from barging in.
• Keep electrical wires or outlets away from the places where they can get wet.
• Maintenance of the appliances are also necessary to avoid any explosions from broken appliances.
• Do not forget to unplug appliances after use (such as the television, the iron, the kitchen appliances, etc).

These are just few ways in keeping your family safe. Formulate your corrective preventive action plans after conducting home appraisals in order to be safe than sorry. Remember that regrets always come in the end and there is no turning back when these occur without actions taken from you.

Sometimes there are things that we see but we ignore them for the reason that we think these will not affect anyone. And this leaves us unaware that these are actually hazards that may contain risks if they are not prevented immediately.