This article explains the NC Management workflow concept designed for the IATF CARA Tool. Apart from ensuring standardized reports and adding business logic checks for the report creation the Cara Tool supports a software based completion of NC Actions.
This enables the IATF CARA Tool to offer support for entering that data by the organization while avoiding changes on NC Management reports created in Excel. Additionally all data is still available in raw form for analytics.
IATF CARA Tool Versions for NC Management
IATF CARA Tool (cara.iatfglobaloversight.org)
The IATF CARA Tool for CBs and Auditors for creating and managing reports
NC Management reports are directly linked to a report which they belong to
NC Management reports can be exported on their own for Organizations
Offers the possibility to import NC CARA Management reports send by the organization
IATF CARA NC Management Tool (nc-cara.iatfglobaloversight.org)
The IATF CARA Tool for Organizations enables the import of NC Management reports send by auditors
Multiple NC Management reports can be managed
Interaction between auditor and organization
The Diagramm above shows the interaction and the data structure for NC Management process. The NC Management report consists of a header, a list of OFIs (Opportunities for Imporvement), PAs (Positive Aspects) and NCs (NC Actions). The NC Actions part is split into three parts the CB-Auditor part, the Organization data part and the Cb data part. Each part can only be completed by the responsible people for that part. The NC CARA Tool is used to complete the Organization part for the NC Actions all other data can’t be changed.
The NC Management report is created by the Auditor who completes all data including the CB Auditor part for all NC Actions.
After completing the NC Management report he sends the report to the organization including the link to the NC CARA Tool. The send process is not part of the CARA Tool and can be done using E-Mail or Cloud Storage etc.
After receiving the link and the NC Management report the organization can import the received report into the NC CARA Tool.
Now the report is available for being completed within the organization. The NC Management report can be as well exported and passed on to other departments. The NC CARA Tool will be always able ti import that report. The only fields which can be changed are limited the organization part of the NC Actions all other fields are blocked for changes.
After the organization has completed the organization part for NC Actions. The report is exported and send back to the auditor. All data will be part of the report including attached files (which are limited to pdf and jpeg for security reasons)
After receiving the NC Management report the auditor can import the NC Management report back to CARA using the “Import customer NC Management report”. The Cara Tool will automatically find the right NC Mangement report and replace the data. If the report is missing from CARA it has to be imported, Using the “Import customer NC Management” functionality limits the imported data to the organization part of NC Actions. This will avoid any manipulation of auditor data by the organisation
This process can be repeated as often as required if the auditor rejects the NC Actions provided by the organization. On each report the old organization data is replaced by the new data provided by the organization.