CAPA (corrective & preventive actions)

CAPA is the closed loop that stops findings from rotting. Every action has an owner, a due date, and a verified outcome, and each carries a human-readable number like CAPA-0001 that links to its own page at /capa/{id}.

Where CAPAs come from

CAPAs are raised from records across the system — incidents, audits, observations and more — and each one keeps a Source link back to the record that raised it (an incident-sourced CAPA links straight to its case number). A module's CAPA button expands to let you name the owner (from your roster) and a due date right where you raise it, so the action enters the loop with someone accountable. An owner and a due date are required — a person-raised CAPA can't be created without both, so nothing enters the loop unassigned or open-ended. (System-raised CAPAs from a sweep, such as an auto-suspended contractor, still get an owner and a due date automatically.) You can also add one directly with the Add CAPA form at the bottom of the CAPA list: pick the site, title, type (corrective or preventive), priority, assignee and due date. Click Suggest an owner to get a suggestion based on who has handled similar actions at that site — use it or ignore it.

Work a CAPA to closure

1. Open the CAPA list and filter by Site and status (Open, Overdue, Awaiting review, Review overdue). Dashboard tiles deep-link here pre-filtered, e.g. /capa?show=overdue.
2. Move the action through its lifecycle with the row buttons or from its detail page: Open → In progress → Completed (or Cancelled at either of the first two stages).
3. Completing an action starts the effectiveness clock: a review due date is set 30 days after completion, and the action shows as Awaiting review.
4. A reviewer records the effectiveness verdict with the Effective / Not effective buttons. Effective closes the action as Verified; Not effective reopens it to In progress for more work.

Reassign — one or many

• On a CAPA's page, pick a new owner from the roster and click Assign.
• On the list, tick several rows and use the Assign bulk bar to hand them all to one person.

What happens automatically

• Due-date escalation: CAPAs with a due date are picked up by the escalation sweep — the assignee is notified when the action is due within 7 days and again once it's overdue. Set how you receive these (email per item, daily digest, optional SMS) under My work.
• System-raised CAPAs still reach someone: you can't raise a CAPA yourself without an owner and a due date (see above), but a CAPA opened automatically by a sweep still escalates to the Safety Team if it has no assignee — it can't quietly rot. Set who's emailed for that queue under notification routing.
• Compliance calendar: pending effectiveness reviews appear on the compliance calendar and its .ics feed.
• Audit trail: every CAPA page shows a tamper-evident activity log (created, assigned, status changes, effectiveness review) with a verified/tampered indicator — a defensible record.

Related: Incidents · Audits · Observations · RCA

Related

• Root cause analysis — Root-cause analysis drives corrective CAPA to verified closure
• Incidents — Investigate and correct injuries from one case
• Observations (BBS) — At-risk observations raise CAPA on unsafe items
• My work — Your personal inbox of open corrective actions
• Audits & inspections — Audit failures are a primary CAPA source