8D & Root Cause Analysis Kit

A corrective action that gets rejected costs you twice: once to redo it, and again in your customer's supplier rating. Most rejections come from the same handful of mistakes: "operator error" as the root cause, "retrained the operator" as the fix, containment that missed a location, no evidence, or nobody checking whether it worked.

This kit gives you the forms and the method to get it right. It was built by Matt Norman: 15 years as a U.S. Navy Aviation Structural Mechanic, then quality inspection and QA/QC supervision in commercial space and defense manufacturing. Plain shop-floor language, no fluff.

What's inside (Word, Excel, and PDF):

- 01 8D Corrective Action Report (Word + PDF): D0 to D8 with a 5W2H problem description, containment by location with a clean point, separate occurrence / escape / systemic root causes, human-factors prompts, actions with verification, document-update and read-across tables, and closure.

- 02 5-Why and Fishbone Templates (Word + PDF): 6M fishbone with a cause evaluation table, three-leg 5-Why (occurrence, escape, systemic), and a root cause quality check.

- 03 Is / Is-Not and Escape Point Worksheets (Word + PDF): narrow the problem before you guess at causes, and find the earliest control that should have caught it.

- 04 CAPA Effectiveness Check (Word + PDF): criteria set in advance, implementation verification, results, and a decision box.

- 05 CAPA Tracker (Excel): automatic status, days open, effectiveness-check due date, and flags for overdue responses, late containment, effectiveness due, not effective, and "closed without an effectiveness check," plus a dashboard with root cause categories and a monthly opened vs. closed table.

- 06 Worked Example (PDF): a complete fictional 8D for oversize drilled holes found at a customer, from D0 to a verified effectiveness check.

- 07 Writing Corrective Actions Customers Accept (PDF): what reviewers look for, 12 reasons responses get rejected, weak vs. strong rewrites, human factors without blame (the "Dirty Dozen"), an AS9100D 10.2 map, and pre-submission checklists.

- 00 Start Here guide.

Who it's for: quality managers, quality engineers, and the "quality person who also does three other jobs" at machine shops, sheet-metal, assembly, and special-process suppliers to aerospace and defense.

What it is not: a copy of AS9100D or SAE AS13000. If your customer requires its own 8D format or portal, use it; this kit is your working method and evidence pack.

License: one company, all sites and users. Instant download. Works in Word/Excel 2016+, Microsoft 365, and LibreOffice; no macros.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by SAE International, IAQG, ISO, or any current or former employer of the author. Using this kit does not guarantee customer acceptance of a corrective action.