{"id":25759,"date":"2019-01-17T10:56:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T10:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kepner-tregoe.com\/capa-and-the-white-space\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T14:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:53:14","slug":"capa-and-the-white-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kepner-tregoe.com\/nl\/blogs\/capa-and-the-white-space\/","title":{"rendered":"CAPA and the White Space"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What is white space? It\u2019s the blank space around the process chart and it\u2019s full of activity. There\u2019s a tendency to try to make every step of the process precise and defined, and to attach a raft of scorecards and KPIs, but the white space remains as big as ever, and people will fill it. Sometimes usefully \u2013 but occasionally causing disaster.<\/p>\n<p>When you look at the last \u201chuman error\u201d CAPAs filed in your database, you\u2019ll see some common challenges:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Conclusions obscured by heaps of text<\/li>\n<li>Assumed causes masquerading as proof<\/li>\n<li>Irrelevant data<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At its simplest, your CAPA process will look something like this:<\/p>\n<p>The important thing to focus on is the quality of the work at each step, especially:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Initial data capture<\/li>\n<li>Symptom description and measurement details<\/li>\n<li>Sampling rate<\/li>\n<li>Impact assessment<\/li>\n<li>Verifying corrective actions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is especially important when dealing with problems that are perceived as human error. People try their best, \u00a0but are often defeated by unworkable systems. Mistakes can only be corrected with careful evaluation \u2013 and that requires useful data, which is often missing.<\/p>\n<p>What does your CAPA scorecard look like? How many CAPA quality measures are there, or are you simply tracking things like timing and completion?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Learn\u00a0more about the necessary components for successful CAPAs and continuous improvement.\u00a0\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/kepner-tregoe.com\/resources\/whitepapers\/corrective-and-preventive-actions-capas-are-evolving-capas-for-continuous-improvement\/\">Check out our whitepaper!<\/a><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kepner-Tregoe has been the industry leader in problem-solving consulting and training for over 60 years, working with companies around the globe and across industries to solve some exciting (sometimes scary) problems and provide employees with the skills they need to confidently deliver results.\u00a0 KT\u2019s experience-based learning methods integrating tools such as simulations and mentoring of in-tact teams have led to countless success stories for companies just like yours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is white space? It\u2019s the blank space around the process chart and it\u2019s full of activity. There\u2019s a tendency to try to make every step of the process precise and defined, and to attach a raft of scorecards and KPIs, but the white space remains as big as ever, and people will fill it. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":1062,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[202,201],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[71],"class_list":["post-25759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manufacturing","category-quality"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v27.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>CAPA and the White Space - Kepner-Tregoe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When dealing with problems that are perceived as human error people try their best, but are often defeated by unworkable systems. Mistakes can only be corrected with careful evaluation and that requires useful data, which is often missing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/kepner-tregoe.com\/nl\/blogs\/capa-and-the-white-space\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"nl_NL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CAPA and the White Space\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When dealing with problems that are perceived as human error people try their best, but are often defeated by unworkable systems. Mistakes can only be corrected with careful evaluation and that requires useful data, which is often missing.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/kepner-tregoe.com\/nl\/blogs\/capa-and-the-white-space\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kepner-Tregoe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-17T10:56:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-05T14:53:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/kepner-tregoe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/CAPA2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1067\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrew Vermes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/blogs\\\/capa-and-the-white-space\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/blogs\\\/capa-and-the-white-space\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"CAPA and the White Space\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-17T10:56:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-05T14:53:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/blogs\\\/capa-and-the-white-space\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":293,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/blogs\\\/capa-and-the-white-space\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/CAPA2.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Operational Excellence\",\"Quality &amp; Continuous Improvement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"nl-NL\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/blogs\\\/capa-and-the-white-space\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/blogs\\\/capa-and-the-white-space\\\/\",\"name\":\"CAPA and the White Space - Kepner-Tregoe\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/blogs\\\/capa-and-the-white-space\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/nl\\\/blogs\\\/capa-and-the-white-space\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kepner-tregoe.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/CAPA2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-17T10:56:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-05T14:53:14+00:00\",\"description\":\"When dealing with problems that are perceived as human error people try their best, but are often defeated by unworkable systems. 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