ISO/IEC 17025 Corrective Action and Nonconforming Work

Things go wrong in every laboratory. What matters is how you catch them, contain them and stop them recurring. Clauses 7.10 and 8.7 cover nonconforming work and corrective action.

Control nonconforming work

When work doesn’t conform, act immediately: evaluate significance, halt and recall results if needed, notify the customer, and record the decisions.

Root cause, not just a patch

Corrective action means finding the underlying cause so the problem doesn’t return — a symptom fix isn’t corrective action.

Verify effectiveness

After acting, confirm the corrective action actually worked, and update your risk picture if needed.