Post-ORR Corrective Actions

Although the ORR/RA follow-up corrective actions are not the responsibility of the Team Leader, line management may ask for input and advice as to the necessary action(s) to correct the issues identified during the ORR/RA. The value and effectiveness of the ORR/RA can be significantly decreased by ineffective corrective actions to resolve the issues identified during the ORR/RA. The Team Leader, through interest in the effectiveness of the overall ORR/RA process, retains an interest in the post- ORR/RA corrective actions. In general, the following items need attention:

Facility management sometimes starts taking immediate action to correct the symptoms identified by the ORR/RA team without adequate attention to understanding the root cause and programmatic basis of the issue. As a result, the corrective action taken may be incomplete, shallow, and short-lived.

DOE line management review of the status of the contractor ORR/RA corrective actions should require corrective action closure packages for the contractor ORR/RA that meet the requirements of DOE-STD-3006-2000, section 5.7.3. In that way, the contractor may more effectively evaluate their own corrective actions before reporting readiness to proceed to DOE.

When DOE line management forwards the DOE ORR/RA to the responsible contractor, the actions expected as to the contractor's corrective actions should be clearly stated. Unclear or unstated expectations result in false starts and failure of the responsible contractor to meet DOE's expectations. This in turn has resulted in delays and incomplete actions following several ORR/RAs.

In those cases where issues have been identified as the responsibility of a DOE field organization, DOE-HQ should formally communicate corrective action expectations to the responsible field organization. The expectations should include corrective action plans and closure packages.

For further information or comments on the ORR web site, please contact James M. Heffner.