There is often a lot of confusion surrounding remedial actions. Whilst this is not necessarily a problem in terms of rectifying problems, a clear understanding of the tools in the toolbox may lead to a better philosophy when looking at Continual Improvement.

There are four different types of remedial action:

Action	When to apply it	Description
Correction	After something has gone wrong	Immediate remedial action is necessary to rectify the specific instances of nonconformity. This could be any type of activity at all, but probably involves re-work, repair, replacement or refund.
Corrective Action	After something has gone wrong	Remedial action is necessary to investigate, identify and eliminate the root cause(s) that allowed the nonconformity in the first place. This probably involves rewriting processes or technical manuals, re-training personnel, implementing better controls and monitoring or adjusting unrealistic objectives.
Preventive Action	Nothing has gone wrong yet, but a weakness has been identified that could lead to a nonconformity in the future	Remedial action is necessary to investigate, identify and eliminate the root cause(s) that permit this weakness in the first place. This probably involves rewriting processes or technical manuals, re-training personnel, implementing better controls and monitoring or adjusting unrealistic objectives.
Improvement	Nothing has gone wrong yet and nothing is going to go wrong. Everything is working as predicted.	New technology, improved training methods, better methodology, changes to interdependent process, regulatory changes, better communication methods, improvements to the work environment, additional or improved resources, etc, all indicate that an improvement could be made that would produce the same results faster and cheaper with more compliance, or produce better results for the same time and money input.

It can be deduced from the above that an organization that is constantly striving to implement Improvements when there is nothing wrong (at the moment) will have less things go wrong in the future, will stay ahead of the game in terms of profitability and compliance and will generally move steadily towards a greater level of Corporate Social Responsibility.

Conversely, an organization that does not take the opportunity to improve of its own accord will move steadily away from a greater level of Corporate Social Responsibility with all of the wasted time, effort and money that that entails. It may be worse than this in that the second organization is jeopardizing its position in the marketplace and ultimately, its very existence.

Remedial Action

After something has gone wrong

Immediate remedial action is necessary to rectify the specific instances of nonconformity. This could be any type of activity at all, but probably involves re-work, repair, replacement or refund.

After something has gone wrong

Nothing has gone wrong yet, but a weakness has been identified that could lead to a nonconformity in the future

Nothing has gone wrong yet and nothing is going to go wrong. Everything is working as predicted.