CAPA (Corrective and Preventive Action)
A CAPA (corrective and preventive action) is a tracked action taken to eliminate the cause of a detected problem, an incident, an audit finding, a near-miss, so it does not recur. A real CAPA carries an owner, a due date, and verification that the fix worked before it closes.
In short: A CAPA (corrective and preventive action) is a tracked action taken to eliminate the cause of a detected problem, an incident, an audit finding, a near-miss, so it does not recur. A real CAPA carries an owner, a due date, and verification that the fix worked before it closes.
CAPA is the closure discipline of a safety program: finding problems is easy, and the difference between a program that works and one that files paperwork is whether every finding gets an owned, dated action that is verified effective before it closes. Auditors read the overdue-CAPA list first, because it measures whether the program closes its loops. Spirit Sight routes incidents, observations, audit findings, and change reviews into one <a href="/capa-software-distillery/">corrective-action queue</a> with a verify-then-close lifecycle.
What is the difference between corrective and preventive action?
A corrective action eliminates the cause of a problem that already happened; a preventive action eliminates the cause of a potential problem before it occurs. Both follow the same lifecycle: identify, assign an owner and due date, act, then verify the action was effective before closing. ISO 45001 clause 10.2 describes exactly this discipline for incidents and nonconformities.
Why do auditors focus on overdue CAPAs?
An overdue corrective action means the organization found a hazard, decided it mattered, and then did not fix it on its own schedule, the worst possible fact pattern in an audit or in litigation after an incident. Keeping the overdue count at zero, visibly, is the strongest single signal of a functioning program.
Tracking this in a spreadsheet? Spirit Sight records it where it happens and builds inventory, compliance, and the books from the same entry. See it on a demo.
Related
See your distillery in Spirit Sight
Book a walkthrough with our team. We’ll show your operation - barrels, TTB, and the books - in one place.
Schedule a Demo