During nonconforming goods investigations, what step involves isolating and tracing the suspect goods to their origin?

• A. Testing
• B. Packaging Analysis
• C. Segregation and Tracing
• D. Invoices

Answer: (C)

In nonconforming goods investigations, isolating the suspect items and tracing them back to their source is the step of segregation and tracing. This combines keeping the nonconforming stock separate from good inventory to prevent further use, with tracking the items to their origin—batch or lot, supplier, production date, and distribution path. This dual action containment and traceability enables you to determine how widespread the issue is and who or what caused it, guiding targeted corrective actions, recalls, and root-cause analysis. Other steps may focus on verifying defects through testing, examining packaging for clues, or reviewing invoices for provenance, but they don’t primarily establish containment and lineage of the affected goods.