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Non conformance reporting viewed as a blame culture

Discussion in 'ISO 9001:2015 - Quality Management Systems' started by Greig, Jul 8, 2019.

  1. Greig

    Greig Member

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    Hi All,
    I'd like some advice please. I work with a manufacturing organisation who have several different depts involved in the production of their goods. More and more often I am finding that employees don't raise a non conformance report when something goes wrong as they view it as dropping someone in trouble. I'd like to take this view away from the NCR process and rename it something like 'Process Improvement Report' So a couple of questions:
    1. Have any of you ever done anything similar to this? If so what did you call it? How did it work?
    2. Does the renaming of the process have any knock-on effects with respect to ISO9001:2015?

    If any of you guys have some bright ideas I'd love to hear them.

    Thanks in advance
     
  2. Golfman25

    Golfman25 Well-Known Member

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    You can call it whatever you want. Whether that helps you situation will depend on how the reports are handled. Good luck.
     
  3. Bev D

    Bev D Moderator Staff Member

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    I'm not sure I understand your dilemma - can you describe what is meant by an NC Report? this may just be a semantic issue or not...

    In general ISO requires that any non conforming material (out of specification or mis-processed) be identified and properly controlled, etc. I have seen this referred to as an NC, NCR NCMR, deviation, etc. Non conforming material only requires correction (rework or repair) or disposition as "use as is" or scrap depending on the severity of the non-conformance.

    I have also seen corrective actions called NCs and NCRs, etc. corrective actions generally require corrective action against root cause to prevent recurrence of the problem.

    confounding this, we have non-compliances to procedures. these are usually behavioral things that many auditors will 'raise an NC' meaning they are issuing a requirement fro corrective action.

    It can get quite confusing if we are not clear with our language and examples...
     
    tony s likes this.
  4. tony s

    tony s Well-Known Member

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    For some organizations, they find NCRs to have a negative tone since they are reporting nonconformities. Some would prefer to call it CAR (corrective action request) or RFA (request for action) to highlight more on the "action" and not on the "nonconformity". For some, it's no big deal, as long as the problems are effectively solved, it's just "a rose by any other name".
     
    Suraiya Ramkissoon likes this.
  5. lebhugz

    lebhugz Member

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    Hi, I get your point, using NC or NCR in an ISO certified company it became a "JARGON" as NC it means you committed mistake and you did wrong that's the thing comes into the mind of other employee, also accomplishing it is like doing a JOG as a punishment, brainstorming, 3-5 pages to fill in.

    For me it's up to you if you decide to change the name of NC into a positive name like PIR, as long as it is clear to the whole organization what its really meant.
    But for me changing the name is not so important the important thing is to convince the people in the organization that NC or PIR you want to call it is that giving NC is for the sake of your improvement and not a disciplinary action because there are problems in your area in not following the standards. They should be aware that NC is an opportunity to improve their performance instead of looking it as a punishment it may decrease employee morale, its the communication and approach that matters in my opinion.

    The problem here in the name of PIR, Process Improvement Report is that the interpretation of it only focuses on "Process" rather than NC it focuses on Non-conformance of process, people, measurement, environment, machines, and other factors. But it is still up to your organization and procedure with clear understanding of it. thanks I hope it help
     
    Suraiya Ramkissoon likes this.
  6. Katrijn

    Katrijn Member

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    hello Greig,

    in a company I worked before, we called it 'Opportunities for Improvement'. The main difference was not the name, but the appointment of the OfI holders.
    In an introduction course everybody (directors, managers, engineers, warehouseworkers, cranedrivers, ...) received, we explained that anybody might be given the responsibility / opportunity to make such an improvement (to rectify a NC) . Appointing the right OfI holder made all the difference. Don't drop it all on the project manager or teamleader...
    give the 'lower ranks' also these responsibilities.
    And when someone comes with a solution, say thank you and act on it so they feel their effort did cause an improvement
     
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  7. lebhugz

    lebhugz Member

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    What your company implementing I think was a Kaizen Project, a team composed of different people from Directors to staff in making a solution or an improvement.
     
  8. Katrijn

    Katrijn Member

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    No, it was not Kaizen.
    It was a way of (attempt to) empowering employees on all levels.

    eg:
    a locally hired machine operator on a certain project doesn't hold the required certificate.
    If you ask the project manager to fix this, (s)he would usually either sack the guy and hire another or send him to training.
    Ask the project secretary to come up with a solution that would work for the site: (s)he asked SHEQ and HR for help, made up a matrix and a letter to the recruiter.
    The solution worked and to make this stick you write a mail to all concerned: 'thank you (name), we will implement xxx now on all projects.'
    Credit goes to the secretary, not the manager...
     
  9. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    I don't believe this is accurate. There's more at stake here than what something is called.
     
  10. hogheavenfarm

    hogheavenfarm Well-Known Member

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    Andy is correct, this is a cultural thing, changing names does not mean that much, it is about how it is handled after the report. That said, I have renamed ours to "Quality Alert Notice", and removed "personal" info where I can in the report. This works here, but at a previous company, after such a report was filed, the area supervisor would make things very hard on anyone he thought was responsible for "putting him in a bad position". As a result, all reports from his people stopped. Sounds like this kind of culture may be entrenched there, and you will have to dig it out carefully.
     
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  11. Ellie

    Ellie Member

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    We use something called an "Incident Form" to record events - mis-cuts, wrong identification, vendor errors, packaging errors (in- or outbound).
    Incidents, dispositions, and follow-ups are recorded. We then record the incidents on an "Incident Log". (Forms and Log were given neutral names in an effort to
    keep the blame game out of the mix.) We review the Incident Log weekly or as needed and note trends and areas that need attention. This allows
    us to track trends in work areas or vendor performance that may need correction or corrective action.

    It's working for us.
     
  12. APanteva

    APanteva Member

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    I would call it OFI report (opportunity for improvement). Sounds positive and focuses on the improvement action, rather than on the cause of the non-conformance. It is up to them to fix it anyway. In this regard, they need to figure out what went wrong and come up with the actions to improve.