Standard Operating Procedures and Workflows

When do we give people the free-reign to do things and when do we design procedures and monitor them?

Questions to ask when working with others:

• Do you give Free Reign/ Guidelines/ Structured Procedures
• Do you Implement, Manage, Guide, Supervise, Track, Monitor, observe or just wait for the results?

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

From http://www.fao.org/docrep/w7295e/w7295e04.htm

What are Standard Operating Procedures?

• detailed written instructions to achieve uniformity of the performance of a specific function

When and Why Do We Use SOPs?

• To satisfy compliance requirements. Recommended for all procedures that pose a potential risk to the health and safety of personnel.
• For Operational documentation such as plans, regulation, compliance, and policies. SOPs distil requirements contained in these documents into a format that is used by workers in their working environment.
• To allow a person who is unfamiliar with the task to fill in. If an employee quit with no notice, the SOP would help another employee complete that person's work.
• To Increase efficiency. Employees who follow an SOP will not miss important steps in a process.

How do we use an SOP?

• An SOP should only include instructions for one task. Overloading an SOP with irrelevant information will make it difficult to use.

How to Write SOPs?

Read more: http://www.ehow.com/facts_5009822_what-are-sops.html#ixzz2jHNUeaDz

• Appropriate Template
  • The template should provide them with an easy decision-making tool based on the number of decisions that must be made by workers to carry out procedures.
  • SOP for personnel: A sequence of Tasks/actions. Decision making steps leading to a different chain of tasks/actions.
  • SOP for processes: A sequence of Tasks/actions
  • 2 Kinds of Templates
    • Routine Short procedures (Worker need only a few judgment calls) to be written out in a simple steps format. For example: Do A, then B, then C.
    • Routine lengthy procedures (that require a few decisions) can use a hierarchical steps format, telling the worker in what order the procedure must go, and often include substeps that must be performed to complete the entire task. Offer examples of flowcharts or infographics to describe procedures that are complicated, lengthy and require making multiple decisions. For example: Do A. If "normal," do B, C and D. If "abnormal," repeat A to confirm and then do E, F and G2
• Title, Purpose and Methods and Responsibilities for carrying out the Procedure
  • Uniform naming convention for titling procedures. Advise them to determine the scope of the procedure, such as who the procedure applies to, when and under what circumstances. You might also describe when not to use each procedure. In the methods and responsibilities section, provide step-by-step protocol on executing a procedure. The template should provide simple, short phrases with action verbs.
• Definitions and resource requirements.
  • Each procedure should have a section defining the terms used in the document and spelling out any acronyms. In addition, it should tell employees what documents, equipment or other material they'll need to carry out the procedure. Reference any other related procedures that employers either need to perform ahead of time or need to be aware of to complete the task. Don't forget other important components the template must have. These include the effective date for the procedure and the last date the procedure was reviewed.

How to Prepare SOPs

• Step 1:
  • Identify what procedures or processes in your organization require documentation in order to be carried out in a consistent manner
  • which persons are most qualified to author the associated SOP.
  • A team approach may be used to both identify the need for the SOP and to write the SOP.
• Step 2:
  • Determine a numbering system to ensure adequate document control of your SOPs. The numbering system should be flexible enough to allow for any number of SOPs and any number of revisions for individual SOPs. Have yourself or an assigned document control person maintain the master list so that no duplicate numbers are used.
• Step 3:
  • Develop an SOP template that all organizational SOPs will follow using word processing software.
  • For administrative or programmatic procedures, the template should contain, at a minimum, a title page, procedures (including purpose, scope, summary, definitions, personnel qualifications, the procedure itself, checklists and records management), quality control and references. For technical or laboratory procedures, the template should contain, at a minimum, all of the sections for administrative SOPs listed above in addition to safety information, cautions, interferences, equipment and supplies in the procedures section.
• Step 4:
  • Write a Standard Operating Procedure on how to write Standard Operating Procedures for your organization, quaintly known as the "SOP on SOPs". Use the developed template and set forth your expectations as to how all SOPs should be prepared, for example, who identifies the need, who assigns the number, what format to use and expectations for what should be included in each section.
• Step 5:
  • Prepare the rest of your SOPs based on the method set forth in the SOP on SOPs, making any minor revisions to improve the preparation process in terms of time and quality of the resulting documents.

Related Ideas

• Master Plans
• Workflows
• Checklists
• Templates
• Manuals

References

• From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_operating_procedure
• http://www.sop-standard-operating-procedure.com/index.htm
• http://www.ehow.com/facts_5009822_what-are-sops.html
• http://www.ehow.com/how_8710348_write-sop-template.html#ixzz2jHNvroMF
• http://www.ehow.com/how_6730713_prepare-standard-operating-procedures.html#ixzz2jHOCdhtQ