“Quality comes not from inspection, but from improvement of the production process.”W. Edwards Deming · Out of the Crisis · 1986 · Out of the Crisis (MIT Press, 1986), cap. 2, p. 29 — comentariul la Punctul 3 al celor 14 puncte, despre renunțarea la dependența de inspecție
A closed ticket is not an eliminated cause.
In the 2022 edition the order changed: 10.1 is continual improvement and 10.2 is nonconformity and corrective action. The requirement has two halves. First you react to the nonconformity: control it, correct it and deal with the consequences. Then you evaluate whether action is needed to eliminate the causes, so that it does not recur or occur elsewhere — you review the nonconformity, determine its causes and check whether similar nonconformities exist or could occur. Finally you review the effectiveness of the corrective action and change the system if necessary. The nature of the nonconformities, the actions taken and their results are retained. A lost laptop is replaced: that is the correction. The reason full-disk encryption was not enforced on every laptop is removed: that is the corrective action. The step skipped most often is the last one, the effectiveness review — without it the ticket is closed but the nonconformity is not.
Why it matters The same finding coming back year after year means only corrections were made, and that is the commonest reason a nonconformity escalates.