CAPA due dates

Good morning,

My company currently track CAPAs by the phase due dates. But I think we need to be more diligent. In order to do that, we need to create a method which allows me to track INDIVIDUAL corrective/preventive actions for each CAPA. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do this? Preferably using excel and by site we have 4 sites that have separate CAPAs

Welcome to the cove!

What is a "phase due date"?

Cari Spears said:

What is a "phase due date"?

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Probably when different portions are to be completed. I see that sometimes.

Cari Spears said:

Welcome to the cove!

What is a "phase due date"?

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When the phase is due whether its INV, IMP or VoE

munozr3 said:

When the phase is due whether its INV, IMP or VoE

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Can I buy a vowel? TLAs are not universal or intuitive, IMHO

Bev D said:

Can I buy a vowel? TLAs are not universal or intuitive, IMHO

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Investigation, Implementation or Verification of Effectiveness those are the typical phases of a CAPA

munozr3 said:

Investigation, Implementation or Verification of Effectiveness those are the typical phases of a CAPA

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Point taken about the Acronyms, but not normally in the real world.

munozr3 said:

My company currently track CAPAs by the phase due dates. But I think we need to be more diligent. In order to do that, we need to create a method which allows me to track INDIVIDUAL corrective/preventive actions for each CAPA. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do this? Preferably using excel and by site we have 4 sites that have separate CAPAs

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What you want is to have CAPA records (and child records) tracked in a database, not a spreadsheet. Then you can have views (or tables) constructed based on database queries to show you the information of interest.

There are commercial solutions; I am familiar with at least one that has an OOTB (Out-of-the-Box, forgive the FLA) solution for corrective actions which can be configured, but it is an annual licensed (floating licenses) product. You can chose to implement the solution locally or have it hosted by the software company.

I agree with Tidge that a database (such as Access) is a better solution. But you CAN make a relational database equivalent in Microsoft Excel (such as a CAPA with multiple individual actions and/or phases) using Index and Match commands. Works faster and uses less memory that VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP.

I used Index and Match commands frequently in downloading data and processing it for metrics analysis. I googled for Index and Match directions, and this is the first link that came up (there are plenty of others).

Smartsheet is also an option that works really well for this. You can set up workflows that manage and can automate the notifications.