Root Cause Analysis for CAPA

This course is intended for all personnel concerned with quality and the analysis & correction of problems. The material presented will be of value to varying levels of expertise among the participants, and will be pragmatic in emphasis. It will be particularly valuable to those newer to this field or those who wish to refresh their knowledge of these technologies.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants will have gained an understanding of the basic concepts involved in Root Cause Analysis and the tools used to conduct this activity. Participants will learn through experiential activities such as group discussions, role-plays, games, and case studies tailored to regulated industries.

Course Description

The primary objective of this course is to develop an understanding of the principles and techniques involved in the practice of Root Cause Analysis. Emphasis is placed on the practical aspects of how to perform an analysis. In addition, this course will provide effective methods which can be used with a Corrective Action system to helps you and your team to ensure costly issues are resolved quickly and do not get dropped through the cracks.

The course will provide attendees with a system to categorize all types of issues, assign responsibility and track team activities to resolve important issues.

Attendees will also learn advanced skills in root cause analysis, problem prevention, and continuous improvement. Included will be the identification of the characteristics and changes that have contributed to simple and complex problems and how to fix them, as well as, working with the tools and templates to capture all needed data to comply with CAPA reports.

Topics to be covered include:

Efficient root cause analysis programs
Developing effective training programs to ensure compliance
Responding effectively to non-conformances, failures, deviations and complaints by identifying root causes and implementing corrective and preventative actions
Developing and implementing programs to prevent reoccurrence
Essential SOPs and Other Documentation
Understanding and interpreting OOS results
Increasing accuracy through efficient documentation practices
Areas of FDA concerns
Identifying and tracking deviations and non-conformances
Responding to complaints and deviations with corrective and preventative actions
Learning to analyze and trend data to identify existing and potential causes of non-conformance
Integrating RCA with other systems: internal auditing, CAPA and complaint handling
Gathering, organizing and managing the data required to conduct RCA
Determining whether or not a complaint should go through a CAPA program
Determining internal and external reporting requirements
Writing effective SOPs
Verifying and validating a CAPA program
Performing trend analysis and using effective RCA tools (Flow Charting, Fault Tree Analysis, Fishbone Diagrams, etc.)
Optimizing CAPA and RCA documentation procedures
Analyzing FDA Warning Letters and common citations to avoid non-compliance