Quantré Group, LLC

The documentation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) is an important part of any successful organization. Once the time and energy has been invested into this process it is important to keep the documentation current but the payoff is ongoing. Job Run Books, Operator Guides, Equipment Guides, Application Guides, Workflow and Company Procedures and Escalation Procedures are the types of tools that should be available and used by employees.  Having these tools in place will also provide a set of standards and guidelines for management and supervisors to manage by. These documents and tools can be cataloged and added to one master document to create a fully documented Standard Operating Procedures and Control Book.

Standard Operating Procedures are also an important tool to ensure that production work is completed despite equipment or personnel shortage. They can reinforce the proper operation of equipment to ensure equipment failures are kept at a minimum and prevent damage caused by misuse of the equipment. Management teams can use SOP’s as a tool to provide employees safety and operational information needed to perform a job properly. SOP’s are also useful to ensure that the work completed meets quality control standards at all times.  SOP’s can be used to show compliance with government regulations, SAS70 Level II, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance, or as a safety checklist during an accident investigation.

Proper documentation can also be a useful tool for auditors. Auditing job performance is a process similar to supervising the operation. Properly documenting your Standard Operating Procedures shows good record keeping is in place. Detailed audit checklists are also a useful test method against the processes. This will serve as an historical and factual record of how, why, and when an existing process is completed.

Most importantly, Standard Operating Procedures serve as great training tools for your employees. They are also useful for continued training of existing employees or employees cross training on a new machine or function. With Standard Operating Procedures in place as a training tool, supervisors and managers can use them as a check list against job performance to reinforce proper procedures.