Corrective Actions
Issues raised, owned, fixed, and proven fixed.
Finding a problem is the easy half. What decides whether it happens again is the unglamorous middle: who owns it, what they actually did, by when, and whether anybody went back afterwards to check the fix held.
Two of the four panels arrived with a brushed finish rather than the polished one we specified on the order. We can work around it this time but it has now happened twice.
- Source
- Customer complaint
- Owner
- Production lead
- Due
- In 10 working days
- Recurrence
- Second in 6 months
From raised to proven, in five steps.
A complaint, an internal report, or a finding is turned into one record with a source, a description, and a reference, wherever it arrived from.
An owner and a due date are set at the moment it is raised. An action with neither is a note, not an action.
The owner is reminded before the date and escalated after it, so an action does not go quiet simply because nobody asked.
A verification date is set when the action is raised. On that date somebody is asked whether the fix actually worked, which is the step most systems skip.
It closes only after verification, and the whole life of it stays readable: raised, owned, actioned, checked, closed.
What changes after we deploy this.
If any of these describe your business, this workflow earns its keep.
A complaint that lives in one person's inbox has no owner, no date, and no evidence it was resolved. It is also the record most likely to be asked for.
Findings arrive with a deadline and a requirement to show what changed. Tracking them in the same place as everything else means the evidence exists before it is asked for.
Recurrence is only visible if closure was recorded honestly. A system that closes its own actions produces a clean log and a business that keeps having the same problem.
Of the actions you closed last year, how many were checked afterwards?
Send us your action log, however it is kept. We will show you what a tracked lifecycle would look like against it, including what would still be open.
It runs inside the tools you already use.
And 30+ others. If your tool is not listed, ask.
See every integrationThe questions we get before we build.
Still unsure? Ask us directly and we will answer before you commit to anything.
How is this different from the reminders workflow?
Review and Expiry Reminders watches dates you already know are coming, like a calibration or a document review. This handles something that arrives unannounced and has to be worked through: an owner, an action, and then a check that the action worked. The verification step is the real difference, and it is the one reminders do not have.
Can it close an action automatically?
No. Whether a fix actually worked is a judgement, and a system that closes its own corrective actions produces a spotless log and a business that keeps hitting the same problem. It will chase, escalate, and ask. It will not decide.
Does it work out the root cause?
No. It records the one a person determined, and prompts for it if the field is left empty. Root cause analysis is exactly the sort of thinking that should not be automated, and a plausible-sounding cause generated by software is worse than an empty field.
Where do complaints come from?
Wherever they arrive: an email to a shared inbox, a form, a phone call written up afterwards, or an internal report. Each becomes the same kind of record so the log is one thing rather than five.
Does this make us compliant?
No. It makes sure issues have an owner, a date, and a check, and that the trail survives. If you are audited, the evidence exists because the process ran rather than because someone assembled a document beforehand. Whether it satisfies your auditor remains their judgement.
What happens to an action nobody acts on?
It escalates, once, to whoever you nominate, and it stays visibly open. It does not quietly disappear and it does not send the owner a fifth copy of the same message. An action log where nothing is ever overdue usually means the log is wrong.
Other automations that complement this one.
The rest of this area finds things. This one carries them to a conclusion. Document Consistency Check and Review and Expiry Reminders surface what needs attention, and Evidence and Audit Pack holds the record that it got it.
Want your actions closed on evidence rather than on memory?
Send us your current action log. We will show you what a tracked lifecycle would look like against it, and what would still be open today.
Every workflow is a managed monthly service. No credit card, and we respond within one business day.