Nonconformity Lifecycle
A nonconformity advances through a sequence of stages. Each stage answers one question, has one owner, and gates what can be edited — child records are write-protected based on the parent's current stage.
The stages
| Stage | Question | Who acts |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | What happened? | Whoever detected it |
| Open approval | Is this a real nonconformity, and who handles it? | The approving authority |
| Progress report | What do we know so far? | Team leader and team members |
| Root cause & action plan | Why did it happen, and what will we do? | Team leader and analysts |
| Close progress report | What did we do, and what was the result? | Team leader and team members |
| Close approval | Is that good enough? | The approving authority |
| Monitoring | Did it actually hold, in the field? | The responsibles the approver named |
| Closed | — | — |
The progress report decides the path
The progress report is not just a status update — it contains two switches that determine the rest of the record's route:
| Switch | Effect |
|---|---|
| Root cause / action plan required | If off, the record skips the analysis stage entirely and goes straight to the close progress report. |
| Close progress report required | If off, the record goes to close approval without a separate close report. |
This is what lets a trivial nonconformity be closed in two stages while a serious one gets the full treatment — without maintaining two different workflows.
The progress report also carries the analysis method — Standard, 5 Why or Fishbone — which decides what the root cause screen expects.
Required fields on a progress report are validated at submission, not while typing. You can save a partial report and come back to it; you cannot submit an incomplete one.
Close approval decides between closing and verifying
Close approval is a fork, and one checkbox at the top of the screen decides which way it goes:
Send to monitoring before closing
Leave it off and the screen asks what closing a record asks for — the adequacy information, the category, and whether the actions' effectiveness should be measured afterwards. Press the button and the record closes.
Turn it on and those panels stand down; the screen asks instead what a field verification needs — what is to be checked, by when, and by whom. The same button then opens a monitoring round and sends the record out rather than closing it.
There is one button, and it does what the checkbox says. You are only ever asked for the fields your own choice makes due, and a record cannot be closed with a half-filled monitoring plan behind it, or sent out with a half-filled close approval.
A monitoring round always returns the record to close approval — answered or cancelled — where the approver decides again. See Monitoring for the round itself, and Effectiveness evaluation for what happens after the record closes.
Who can write what
Write access to child records follows the parent's stage:
| Child record | Editable while the parent is in |
|---|---|
| Progress report | Progress report stage |
| Root cause | Root cause & action plan stage only |
| Action | Root cause & action plan stage, or while waiting on actions |
| Close progress report | Close progress report stage |
Additionally, reports can only be saved by the assigned team — team leader and team members — not by anyone who happens to hold the permission.
Automatic advance
Two transitions happen without anyone pressing a button:
- When every action on the record is closed, the record moves itself to the close progress report stage. You do not have to remember to advance it after the last action lands.
- When a nonconformity linked to a customer complaint is closed, the linked complaint is notified and can advance its own close stage.
Closing the record
At close approval the approver records:
- Adequacy information — the judgement of whether the actions were sufficient.
- Optionally an updated category.
- Close approval attachments — final evidence.
On approval the system stamps closed at and closed by automatically, and the record becomes read-only.
A rejection at close approval sends the record back for another close progress report cycle — with a new cycle number, leaving the rejected cycle intact as history.