Entries by Nathan Ives

Corrective Action Program Best Practice 16 – On-duty Operations Staff Notification of Operational Deficiencies

On-duty operations personnel are responsible for a facility’s safe and reliable operation. To ensure they are capable of meeting this obligation under normal, abnormal, and emergency conditions, operations personnel must be aware of the performance status of the equipment under their control. Therefore, these watchstanders must be immediately notified of deficiencies that currently or will potentially diminish facility performance.

Corrective Action Program Best Practice 15 – Condition Report Review Meetings

Effective corrective action programs promptly and consistently screen newly reported issues for their impact on the organization’s vision, mission, values, and goals. These screenings prioritize and aggregate corrective actions from all business areas with the organization’s strategic initiatives and day-to-day operations; ensuring optimal resource use. Consequently, condition report review meetings are frequently used to review and prioritize newly submitted condition reports.

Corrective Action Program Best Practice 14 – Establish Time Limits for Causal Analyses

Determining the amount of time required for performing causal analyses is a balancing act. The depth of issue investigation should align with its significance. Consequently, more significant events require additional time to perform the more detailed causal analysis assigned to them. Countering this is the urgency to understand and correct the underlying causes of more significant events as well as to put into place those barriers that will prevent their recurrence. Thus, it is important to establish time limits for causal analysis performance that effectively balance these two opposing needs.

Corrective Action Program Best Practice 13 – Formally Defined Reporting Criteria

Effective corrective action programs support achievement of the organization’s vision, mission, values, and goals. Consequently, adverse conditions and trends as well as performance improvement opportunities entered into the program must be aligned with these stated outcomes lest the program’s resource be diverted to non-value adding issues and its effectiveness be diminished. Formally defining corrective action program reporting criteria helps ensure the desired alignment is achieved and program effectiveness maximized.

Corrective Action Program Best Practice 12 – Formally Defined Corrective Action Program

Effective corrective action programs engage employees in the identification, documentation, evaluation, prioritization, and resolution of organizational challenges thereby enhancing achievement the organization’s vision, mission, values, and goals. These programs themselves are highly efficient and capable of producing repeatable results. Documenting corrective action program processes provides the framework necessary to achieve this level of focused execution consistency.