STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
What is an SOP?
At the most basic level, an SOP is an action plan, a set of clear, and concise step-by-step instructions that must be followed to successfully execute a routine internal process. But a fully formed and mature SOP will need more than just the procedure, it should include Purpose, Scope, Resources, Responsibilities, and perhaps Definitions and Documents, if needed.
What an SOP is not?
An SOP is not a technical document, a training manual, or a thesaurus. It’s not a system, a process, or a policy. It’s not a repository for every detail, email, or scrap of information anyone has ever written concerning the procedure being executed. And most importantly, the single most consequential fact about SOPs, they are not written in stone.
Why does a company/organization need SOPs?
- Maintain consistency and continuity
- Provide industry and regulatory compliance
- Facilitate performance management
- Limit risk and improve safety
- Simplify and reduce the cost of training
- Increase and maintain organizational knowledge
- Promote employee autonomy
- Establish quality control
- Ease procedure duplication and rescaling
- Streamline onboarding
What does it take to create an SOP?
- Purpose: Tell me what it does? Keep it short and sweet.
- Scope: Who? What? When?
- Responsibilities: What roles are needed to execute each activity?
- Definitions: Clarify terms, acronyms, and abbreviations.
- Related Documents: List related documents with links and/or locations.
- Procedures: These are the steps
