Corrective And Preventive Action (CAPA)

Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) are improvements to an organisation's processes taken to eliminate causes of non-conformities or other undesirable situations. Corrective action (CA) is defined as the action to eliminate the cause of a “detected” non-conformance or other undesirable situation (Standards 2005). On the other hand, preventive action (PA) is defined as the action to eliminate the cause of a “potential” non-conformance or other undesirable situation (Standards 2005). Corrective action is taken to prevent recurrence, whereas preventive action is taken to prevent occurrence.
The purpose of CAPA is to improve the organisation’s process so that the non-conformances or other undesirable situations can be eliminated. A non-conformance