BACK TO BASICS BY GREG WELLS

Mitigating Risk
Implement containment and immediate correction together
ORGANIZATIONS OCCASIONALLY Program (NADCAP)—and it is called to be produced, but you certainly don’t
produce nonconforming parts and must containment. While containment is often want to allow the defect to be produced
ensure defects are not shipped to custom- listed as a single step on a corrective action and reach the customer.
ers. To prevent these defects from reaching form, it really should be considered two So you must implement an immedi-
customers, you need a foolproof process distinct activities: containment and immedi- ate correction to bandage the problem
to manage products that are potentially ate correction. until you can properly fix it, thus making
nonconforming. Containment is the comprehensive stock immediate correction the second activity
ISO 9001 describes the minimum quality check of completed goods and work in of the two-step containment process. A
management system requirements for sev- progress that is conducted when a product- typical immediate correction would be to
eral processes, including corrective action. related nonconformance has been identi- red-line an additional production operation
Though the standard lists several require- fied. You must ensure that all potentially or inspection operation on each applicable
ments to effectively implement a corrective nonconforming parts are inspected for the work order.
action to resolve a nonconformance, it does defect condition, so 100% of the contained Suppose your car has a flat tire. The
not list a requirement to identify and con- product should be inspected. problem right now is that you’re stuck on
trol potentially nonconforming products Containment is a sorting operation to the side of the road. The immediate correc-
related to that nonconformance. segregate the nonconforming parts from tion is to replace the flat tire with the spare
That process is a requirement for several conforming parts. It is not necessary to tire. It would be a prudent containment
advanced quality management systems— inspect all of a part’s features and charac- action to inspect the other three tires for
such as AS9100 and the National Aerospace teristics. Only inspect for the characteristic nails before driving away from the shop
and Defense Contractors Accreditation suspected to be nonconforming. So while that eventually repairs the flat tire.
the scope of the containment It is only after you have implemented
must be comprehensive, the scope these emergency-type responses of contain-
of the inspection can be limited ment and immediate correction that you
while still providing reasonable take the time and energy to determine the
confidence that you will prevent root cause of where the nail came from and
the error of shipping defective implement a corresponding corrective ac-
products. tion to prevent future nails in your tires.
After you have contained the Including an effective containment
suspect parts, you might think that process in the corrective action procedure
you are ready to investigate the can provide a reliable means of ensuring
root cause of the nonconformity, customers do not receive nonconforming
but there is a second phase of the products when you encounter a nonconfor-
containment task to complete: im- mance. Though often simply called contain-
mediate correction. ment, it is actually two independent tasks
You must determine whether that should be implemented in conjunction
any parts will soon run through to mitigate risk. QP
production and become noncon-
forming. If so, you must imple-
GREG WELLS is an internal quality
ment an immediate correction to
auditor at Sikorsky Global Helicopter
prevent these parts from becom- in Coatesville, PA. He holds a master’s
degree in management science from
ing defective and potentially Troy University in Troy, AL. He is an ASQ
reaching the customer. You may senior member and an ASQ-certified
quality systems lead auditor.
not know what caused the defect

72 QP • www.qualityprogress.com