Major vs Minor nonconformity

Could you please let me know what is the difference between major and minor nonconformity?

Answer:

Minor nonconformity - a nonconformity that does not affect the capability of the management system to achieve the intended results. An example might be that you find some people have not undertaken training that the organization has made mandatory (ISO 9001 clause 7.2), but you find that those people are still competent to carry out their tasks.

Major nonconformity - a nonconformity that affects the capability of the management system to achieve the intended results or in other words, when you have found that the requirement of the standard has not been met. For example, if an organization completely failed to fulfill a certain requirement; if a process has completely fallen apart; or if you have several minor nonconformities that are related to the same process, or to the same element of your management system.

Could you please provide any practice tests/incidences to rule out any nonconformity present in the scenario?

Answer

Whenever a requirement, from the standard, or from regulation, or from internal documents, is not being met you have a nonconformity. To decide if it is major you can follow the criteria in this article - Major vs. minor nonconformities in the certification audit - https://advisera.com/27001academy/blog/2014/06/02/major-vs-minor-nonconformities-in-the-certification-audit/

You can find more information about nonconformities at:

• Article – How to write a good ISO 9001 audit nonconformity? - https://advisera.com/9001academy/blog/2018/04/24/how-to-write-a-good-iso-9001-audit-nonconformity/
• Free course – ISO 9001:2015 Internal Auditor Course - https://advisera.com/training/iso-9001-internal-auditor-course/
• Book - Discover ISO 9001:2015 Through Practical Examples -https://advisera.com/books/discover-iso-9001-2015-through-practical-examples/