The Nonconformity Report (NCR) is the record that documents any departure from a requirement: product outside specification, a process run the wrong way, a customer requirement that was missed or a finding raised in an audit. It is one of the records most often asked for under ISO 9001 (clause 10.2), which requires the organization to react to the nonconformity, evaluate the need for corrective action, implement whatever is necessary and review how effective the response was.
A good NCR has three blocks. The first describes the fact: what happened, where, when, who detected it and which requirement was breached — with numbers and evidence, never opinions. The second block records the immediate correction (disposition): what was done at the time with the affected product or service, such as segregating, reworking, accepting under concession or returning it. The third block holds the root cause analysis and the corrective action, which attacks the cause so the problem does not come back.
The most common mistake when filling in an NCR is confusing correction with corrective action. Reworking the defective part is correction; adjusting the fixture that let the part go out wrong is corrective action. Auditors spot that confusion in minutes. Another frequent mistake is raising an NCR for everything: keep the formal report for relevant or recurring deviations and handle minor occurrences in a simplified record, otherwise the team abandons the system because of the paperwork.
The template below is filled in with a typical real case from a metalworking plant. Use it as a reference for the level of detail: specific enough for anyone to understand the problem without having been there, and short enough to be completed in fifteen minutes.