Key Definitions from the International Organization for Standardization

Corrective actions are steps that are taken to remove the causes of an existing nonconformity or to make quality improvements. Corrective actions address actual problems. In general, the corrective action process can be thought of as a problem solving process.

According to ISO 9000:2000 the definition of corrective action is: "Action to eliminate the cause of a detected nonconformity or other undesirable situation."Corrective actions are therefore steps that are taken to remove the causes of an existing nonconformity or to make quality improvements. In contrast with that a correction would be any action to eliminate a detected nonconformity.

A supplier is an organization that provides products or services to customers. Customers can be either internal or external to the supplier organization.

Supplier Scorecards

Often when there are several criteria for a supplier selection, purchasers often rely on supplier scorecards as a guideline. Supplier scorecards allow a maximum number of points per criterion. Suppliers’ scores for each criterion are based on predetermined point award schemes. For example, one criterion may be location with a maximum of 30 points. The evaluator may award 30 points if the supplier is located within 50 km of the purchaser’s plant, 20 points if the supplier is located between 75 to 100 km away, and 0 points if the supplier is located more than 200 km away. The Supplier scorecard is providing your company with an effective tool for supplier monitoring. To take this example further the supplier scorecard can run the whole gamut on supplier relationship management by including corrective actions, supplier corrective actions etc. A Supplier scorecard is a critical suppier management tool.