Anyone involved with any type of management system has run across the term “preventive action.”  It leaves many professionals scratching their head, wondering what a preventive action actually is. I must admit, the term and its concept can be quite confusing and abstract.

Webster’s dictionary defines preventive as “protecting, as against failure: ward off. To keep (someone) from acting.” The American Society for Quality (ASQ) defines preventive action as “an action taken to remove or improve a process to prevent potential future occurrences of a nonconformance.”

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