Story update 9/23/09: Reference to 9.5.2.f was changed to 8.5.2.f in second paragraph.

As more suppliers are required by their regulators and customers to achieve ISO 9001 certification, and because certification symbolizes a point of competitive differentiation in a tight economy, emphasis on meeting the standards is only increasing. Now that continuous improvement has come to be expected, documenting its effectiveness is an increasing challenge because continuous improvement cannot be achieved without the ability to effectively prevent recurrence of quality escapes.

While the ISO standards have long called for a corrective action program (section 8.5.2), the new ISO 9001:2008 standard requires corrective action program effectiveness (section 8.5.2.f). Many organizations struggle to identify and implement a corrective action methodology, and are now straining even more to define, measure, and achieve effectiveness as required by the standard.

Many companies that lead the field in corrective action effectiveness are integrating root cause analysis into their ISO 9001 compliance efforts. Following are best practices and real-life examples gleaned from leading companies.

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