Some people are visual learners that process information better from visual aids as opposed to written material. Change is a natural part of the business world. Procedures that you rely on today will have to change over time so as to stay effective. Some businesses may want to make the reviews more frequent and could recommend bi-annual or even quarterly reviews of important SOPs.
Getting your employees involved in the review process can make it much easier and effective. Encourage employees to point out any inconsistencies they see in SOPs and consider getting observant employees involved in the next round of revisions. Standard operating procedures can do a lot of good for the average business. Anything that can help train new employees, improve important processes, and deliver better customer experiences is something a business should do.
Providing good organization is only one way to help your business succeed. There are plenty of other things you could be doing to help your business grow and improve under your direction. Contact us today so we can talk about the best way to help your company. What Are Standard Operating Procedures? Produce Reliable Results Consistency is the key to running a successful business.
Improve Employee Training and Management When you have standard operating procedures, you make hiring and retaining employees a lot easier. Increase Safety Employee safety is important for every business. Improve Efficiency Take some time to think about how much a simple question in how to do things can delay a business decision.
This is where SOP can help them out. People from everywhere can follow the same processes and produce equally good products.
Apart from these three primary benefits, the function of SOP offers various other advantages. Some of them include:. With all these benefits, the importance of SOP increases in all industries. Let us examine some of the key areas covered by different Standard Operating Procedures in different groups of organizations. Standard Operating Procedures help establish a benchmark for quality of products and services.
This is essential requirement for sustaining customer confidence both within the country and at the global scale as well. For example, the importance of SOP in pharmacy is high because even a little discrepancy can cause serious problems both for the manufacturer and for the consumer. I have been a part of an accredited laboratory for 10 years now and have successfully faced more than 12 audits based on the ISO…. You need to be highly knowledgeable and willing to learn to be eligible for….
The analytical results you communicate can have far-reaching consequences and can form the basis for taking decision on safety of use of commercial products, foods…. Benefits : Learn what really goes into running a HPLC Participate in live webinar coaching sessions Test your pick up through quiz sessions Access to…. I am sure you are also using a hand sanitizer and sometimes wonder if it is really effective and even wondered how you can check….
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Finally, the benefits of a valid SOP are minimized work effort, together with improved data comparability, credibility, and legal defensibility. SOPs are necessary even when published methods are being administered because cited published methods may not include appropriate information for conducting the procedure in-house. For example, if the SOP is written for a standard analytical method, the SOP should designate the procedures to be followed in greater detail than appear in the published method, detailing how, if at all, the SOP differs from the standard method and any options, changes or alterations that the organization follows United States Environmental Protection Agency, The significance regularly set up and managed quality control and quality assurance systems with their integral well-written SOPs and other quality documents for the achievement of Company business objectives cannot be ignored.
They serve as a passport to success by assisting the Company to accomplish high-quality processes, procedures, systems, and people, with eventual high-quality products and services and enhancement of the following: Customer satisfaction, and therefore, customer loyalty and repeat business and referral; timely registration of drugs by eliminating waste and the requirement for rework; operational results such as revenue, profitability, market share and export opportunities; alignment of processes with achievement of better results; understanding and motivation of employees toward the Company quality policy and business objectives, as well as participation in continuous quality improvement initiatives; and confidence of interested parties in the effectiveness and efficiency of the Company as demonstrated by the financial and social gains from Company performance and reputation Manghani, K.
Benefits of SOPs are shown in Table 2. SOPs should be written in a step-by-step, easy-to-read format by subject-matter experts who know the processes and the structure of the organization Frank, D.
They should be written by individuals aware of the activity and the organization's internal structure. These individuals are basically subject-matter experts who actually perform the work or use the process. A team accession can also be followed, particularly for multi-tasked processes where the experiences of a number of individuals are critical United States Environmental Protection Agency, Well-written SOPs should first shortly define the purpose of the work or process, involving any regulatory information or standards that are suitable to the SOP process, and the scope to show what is covered.
Any specialized or different terms either in a separate definition section or in the suitable discussion section should be explained. The information presented should be clear and easy to understand. The active voice and present verb tense should be used. SOP shall be simple and short. Information should be transported clearly and absolutely to remove any doubt as to what is needed. Flow charts should be used to illustrate the process being defined Jain SK.
It may be helpful to include additional experts to help gather information and to review, test and approve draft SOPs Frank D. Operating instructions should be close to the user and kept up to date.
The following issues should be considered in evaluating operating procedure documentation:. There should be an appropriate QA system in place to guarantee that the procedures can be kept up to date and that any errors are rapidly detected and corrected.
The procedures should not be needlessly prescriptive. The best way of guaranteeing that procedures do not become overly prescriptive is through involving the operator during the design stage.
Procedures should contain information on the necessities for the wearing of personal protective equipment during the task. Any risks to the operator should be documented at the start of the procedure, based on a risk assessment of the task.
Prerequisites should presented clearly at the start of the procedure to guarantee that the operator can check that it is safe to proceed.
The most important information on the page should be defined and this should be designed to be the most prominent information. Any warnings, cautions or notes should be placed immediately prior to the instruction step to which they refer. Symbols, colours, and shapes used for graphics should conform to industry standards Health and Safety Executive.
When actualizing a SOP one can choose number of different ways to organize and format them. There are some factors which determine what type of SOP to use or create: How many decisions will user need to make during process?
How many steps and sub steps are there in procedure? Routine procedures that are short and necessitate few decisions can be written using simple steps format. Long procedures consisting of more than 10 steps, with few decisions should be written along with graphical format or hierarchical steps.
Procedures that necessitate many decisions should be written along with flow chart. Requirement for document identification and control, accountability and traceability responsibility must be involved with every SOP; this can be obtained by supporting constant format. The need for an SOP or the revision of an existing one should be identified by informing the appropriate supervisor.
Written instructions on standardized procedures supply guidance to guarantee that activities are conducted in a constant way, hence leading to reliable product and service quality. SOPs should be prepared in full compliance with guidelines and organizations and must mirror current organizational practices Hattamer-Apostel, R. A SOP should be written by a team in that field. The most substantial step for administering the SOP in working area, train or retrain the user.
Every one should follow the procedure accurately with each and every step in detail, it is very significant to train the user otherwise individual may interpret meaning in different ways.
People can follow better when they understand significance of procedure. Trainer should explain and demonstrate how each step in the SOP will be performed and should assure them this will increase Quality of product by providing safety and accuracy which will ultimately increase the confidence of the user.
The people in the writing team can write or edit parts of an SOP independently and then one person can combine the individual contributions. After combination the SOP should be circulated the draft SOP for review among the initiator before editing a final draft for review by supervisors and subsequent supervised testing by employees. Ideally a writing team should meet at least once in the beginning of a project to establish writing objectives, targets and responsibilities, but then can work semi-independently with one person serving as coordinator.
SOPs should be checked out by several people qualified to assess the SOP in terms of its completeness and clarity of subject matter. It should be organized and recorded who is responsible for the proper distribution of the documents, the filing and administration e.
Finally, it should be indicated how frequently a valid SOP should be periodically evaluated usually 2 years and by whom. Only officially issued copies may be used, only then the use of the proper instruction is guaranteed United States Environmental Protection Agency, SOPs should be reviewed that is, validated by one or more individuals with appropriate training and experience with the process Almeida S.
It is especially helpful if draft SOPs are completely tested by individuals other than the original writer before the SOPs are finalized. A set format in styling, information necessitated, and a numbering system is required, as well as biannual or annual review to ensure that the procedure is up-to-date. An archival system is needed to ensure that an historical record can be maintained and only current SOPs are available for staff use United States Environmental Protection Agency, Signature approval indicates that an SOP has been both reviewed and approved by management.
When practical, use of electronic signatures, as well as electronic maintenance and submission, is an acceptable substitution for paper. SOP general form defines an integrated system of management activities involving planning, implementation, documentation, assessment, and improvement to ensure that a process, or item, is of the type and quality needed for the project United States Environmental Protection Agency, , Jain, SK.
Any change in the procedure must be included into the SOP. Nevertheless, prior to any change to the SOP, management must be advised of, and approve, the change. If there are some errors in the finalized SOPs, such as typographical errors, printing errors, e.
These types of errors do not require full SOP revision, thus a revision number will not be generated and management approval is not needed. If the error occurs on the signature page then the signature page will be resigned. These types of corrections will be traceable since the historical file will reflect all corrections including typographical errors. Specifically, the historical SOP file will contain both the SOP with the correct page s as well as the page s containing the error.
The page with the error will not be removed from the historical file. Additions can be made to an SOP via a clarification or an addendum. Usually, the revision will be organized during the biannual review process. When the SOP is revised, the revision number is updated. Revisions, explanations, and addenda are prepared by appropriate personnel, but must be approved by management. An SOP can be eliminated when it is no longer applicable. Management must approve the elimination of an SOP.
Two or more SOPs can be consolidated; in this case one SOP supersedes the other, but management approval is required for consolidation of procedures. SOPs necessitate to remain current to be useful. The review process should not be overly cumbersome to encourage timely review.
Therefore, whenever procedures are changed, SOPs should be updated and re-approved. SOPs should also be reviewed systematically on a periodic basis, e. The review date should be added to each SOP that has been reviewed. If an SOP defines a process that is no longer followed, it should be removed from the current file and archived Almeida S.
SOPs should describe how the checklist is to be prepared or on what it is to be based Almeida S. Many activities use checklists to guarantee that steps are followed in order. Checklists are also used to document completed actions. Any checklists or forms involved as part of an activity should be referenced at the points in the procedure where they are to be used and then attached to the SOP United States Environmental Protection Agency, In some cases, detailed checklists are prepared specifically for a given activity.
In those cases, the SOP should describe, at least generally, how the checklist is to be prepared, or on what it is to be based. Any checklists or forms involved as part of an activity should be referenced at the points in the procedure where they are to be used and then attached to the SOP. Each organization should develop a numbering system to systematically identify and label their SOPs, and the document control should be described in its Quality Management Plan.
Usually, each page of an SOP should have control documentation notation. A short title and identification ID number can serve as a reference designation. The revision number and date are very useful in identifying the SOP in use when reviewing historical data and is critical when the requirement for observable records is included and when the activity is being reviewed United States Environmental Protection Agency, The organization should sustain a master list of all SOPs.
This file or database should show the SOP number, version number, date of issuance, title, author, status, organizational division, branch, section, and any historical information regarding past versions. The QA Manager or designee is usually the individual responsible for sustaining a file listing all current quality-related SOPs used inside the organization. Note that this list may be used also when audits are being considered or when questions are raised as to practices being followed within the organization.
The Quality Management Plan should indicate the individual s responsible for assuring that only the current version is used. That plan should also designate where, and how, outdated versions are to be maintained or archived in a manner to prevent their continued use, as well as to be available for historical data review.
Electronic storage and retrieval mechanisms are generally easier to access than a hard-copy document format. For the user, electronic access can be limited to a read-only format, thereby protecting against unauthorized changes made to the document United States Environmental Protection Agency, This term describes an integrated system of management activities involving planning, implementation, documentation, assessment, and improvement to ensure that a process, or item, is of the type and quality needed for the project Levine, D.
How should a SOP be organized? A SOP should be organized to ensure ease and efficiency in use and to be specific to the organization which develops it. There is no one 'correct' format; and internal formatting will vary with each organization and with the type of SOP being written.
How much detail needs to be included in a SOP? A SOP should be written with sufficient detail so that someone with a basic understanding of the field, can successfully reproduce the activity or procedure when unsupervised United States Environmental Protection Agency, SOPs should be organized to guarantee ease and efficiency in use and to be specific to the organization which develops it. Where possible break the information into a series of logical steps to avoid a long list.
The level of detail provided in the SOP may differ based on, e. A generalized format is discussed next Levine, D. Before finalizing and distributing SOPs, organizations should get the documentation reviewed and validated by people with training and experience on the processes. After all, prior to any change to the SOP, management must be advised of, and approve, the change. Finalized SOPs, containing typographical errors, printing errors, e. An organization's SOPs should be written in a format that is tailored to the organization type and its unique requirements.
General SOP format is shown in Table 3. Several categories and types of SOPs can be distinguished. The name "SOP" may not always be appropriate, e. Also worksheets belonging to an analytical procedure have to be standardized to avoid jotting down readings and calculations on odd pieces of paper Almeida S.
Generally the SOPs may be written for any repetitive technical activity, as well as for any administrative procedure Almeida S. SOPs may be written for any repetitive technical activity, as well as for any authoritative or functional programmatic procedure, that is being followed inside an organization.
General guidance for preparing both technical and administrative SOPs follows and examples of each are located in the Appendix United States Environmental Protection Agency, A technical SOP is a standard operating procedure which involves environmental data generation, manipulation, or accumulation, e.
Technical SOPs can be written for a wide variety of activities. Examples are SOPs instructing the user how to perform a specific analytical method to be followed in the laboratory or field such as field testing using an immunoassay kit , or how to collect a sample in order to preserve the sample integrity and representativeness such as collection of samples for future analysis of volatile organic compounds or trace metals , or how to conduct a bioassessment of a freshwater site.
Keep things running smoothly and receive work requests. Manage safety, regulatory compliance, and standard operating procedures on the go.
Track usage by work order and asset. Create low quantity alerts. Assign, comment, and track the status in real-time. Global Procedure Library. Table of Contents. What do these idioms have in common? Besides being frequently used in North American workplaces, each phrase is related to sports. Yes, even the latter one! Though its origins remain unclear, this maxim first appeared in a newspaper article. Whether you run an e-commerce bobblehead store or a large aluminum manufacturing facility, working from standard operating procedures SOPs is crucial.
Carefully constructed SOPs boost efficiency, safety, and quality control. Unsurprisingly, the larger the organization, and the more workers completing tasks simultaneously, the more challenging performance management becomes.
This article will discuss the importance of standard standard operating procedures for every stage and type of business. Clearly written standard operating procedures are essential because they eliminate uncertainty about how to best complete assignments. Put simply, anyone within your organization should be able to produce a standardized outcome for any routine task by simply following the instructions.
Standard operating procedures also referred to as SOPs, are written instructions that detail how to complete routine tasks in simple steps.
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