Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Revision as of 00:40, 18 March 2022

As organizations grow and develop, the number and size of its operations, projects, and programs increases. It is therefore more difficult to ensure the quality of the organization's operations and processes, as well as measure and improve them in an effective way. It will require a lot of resources and take many years for an employee to find the best way to complete a given operation. In large companies, it is not certain that the entire organization has the opportunity to utilize the skills of specific employees. A Standard Operating Procedure also called a SOP is a document that clearly describes the purpose of a given operation. It also entails a well-defined and clear criteria or instructions for performing it. It is an effective way to share knowledge as well as unify and standardize an organization's internal processes and procedures. SOPs can be used to train employees, further provide knowledge from experienced employees to new ones, increase employee independence, minimizing the time and resources spent on unnecessary work in the organization. This article will examine the pros and cons of using SOPs from a management perspective. In addition, it investigates which formats to use to write SOPs that suit the purpose and scope of the given operation.

Defining Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

An Standard Operating Procedure is a set of instructions on how an organization want employees to perform routine operations. SOPs can be used in all possible scenarios and are frequently used for routine work, such as in production. It is an effective way to ensure consistent results, reduce miscommunication etc. SOPs are also increasingly used in projects, as similar work is often repeated from project to project. The SOP should clearly explain the situation it is used for and the purpose for it. Additionally, what steps the user of the document must perform and be aware of, etc. There are no specific requirements for how organizations use SOPs, but there are some industry standard or best practices that this article will focus on.

This article will only focus on SOPs used in projects, especially those SOPs used in situations of high uncertainty and where operations are not routine work but part of the standard operation done in projects. This article distinguishes between three types of SOPs in particular: 1) routine SOPs, which are work that is performed regularly and is part of the daily organocation operations. 2) Process SOPs, these are operations that are not part of the daily work but are operations that must be performed in all projects. 3) uncertainty SOP. If there is enough knowledge of the project processes, SOPs can be developed for atypical scenarios in projects. These are known possible situations that is not expected to happen, but can present itself in projects. An SOP can help teams figure out how to act most effectively based on experience.

Routine work and set produces are a big part of organizations' day-to-day operations. New employees usually go through a training process. However, this does not mean that new employees altogether understand the organization or that training can replace years of experience in a field. It can take several years of experience, the right skills or knowledge of the organization to find the optimal way to perform a given task. In situation with high uncertainty, it is not easy to know what the best course of action is. This is why SOP is a great tool for minimizing time and resources spent on unnecessary work.

The abovementioned situation is a relevant management problem. How can new inexperienced employees benefit from the skills and know-how of their more experienced colleagues? How do organizations ensure that the knowledge and experience that has been invested over several years remains in the organization even after these valuable employees leave the organization? Many resources are spent on this and as a result there is a demand for effective ways to minimize waste, that is to reduce the time spent on unnecessary tasks without the need for several years of experience. SOP is designed to ensure that employees who can benefit from each other's experience, as it do not require years of experience to find the optimal way to perform a task.

Industries

Common to all SOPs is that they are able to determine the fastest and most effective way to perform an action. All industries can adopt SOPs in their organization and depending on the field in which they work, different requirements and specifications are seen for these SOPs. The format of the SOPs may look different depending on the industry or organizational cultures in which they are developed for. The medical world has more and stricter requirements in their projects than, for example, the fashion industry has, and as a result, the format of the two industries' SOPs will look different. Internally in projects, the format of SOPs can also vary depending on the importance and requirement of the specific operation, for example legal processes may look different from design processes. The specific organizational culture may influence how much SOPs are used in projects. Some organizations may require their employees to follow the organization's SOPs closely, while other companies uses SOPs more as a training tool for new employees or if the employee is in doubt.

Key components of a SOP

An important prerequisite for the success of SOPs in an organization is that they are easily accessible to employees. It is especially important that they are located in a place where everyone in the organization has access to them, and that the employee can easily identify which SOP they need. Well-written good SOPs alone do not automatically provide value, there must be a culture in an organization to create, maintain and use SOPs. In addition, It should take fewer resources for employees to follow an SOP than if they did not have the SOP without compromising on quality. The format of an SOP is not universal, but there are some best practices that should be appled when developing an SOP, they are presented below.

[[File:]]

The practical information is important to ensure that the SOPs are used, hereunder; o Title o The date of preparation o And for ongoing changes or updates o Who it is prepared by and updated

The title ensures that the employee can easily find the right document in a given database and must therefore be chosen with careXXX. Dates make it easy for the employee to assess how current the document is. Staten who prepared and updated the SOP, makes it easy for employees to find the people when they are in unsure of parts of the content or something related to it.

- Purpose

This section explains the SOPs purpose, goal, policy etc. It is no coincidence that it is one of the first things the user reads, it is so that the user can quickly clarify whether they demand what the SOP presents.

- Scope - Definition of operation / Reservation

- Procedure o Below it can be described as a flow charts diagram, checklist. Criteria / specifications

- Necessary details - Maintenance and measurement

Users of an SOP

SOPs can help employees act more independently and reduce the time they spend making a plan. It also creates a transparency around each other's work, as it becomes easy to understand for other employees to perform the same thing without the same background experience.

The challenge of using SOP is that you must be aware that there is an SOP for the exact task you need to perform. Is the SOP described in a way the employee can understand it and does the employee have the right skills to perform the task in the way described in the SOP.

The purpose of SOP from a management perspective

How can managers use SOPs (are there any restrictions)

Challenges or criticisms of using them from a management perspective

The benefit from a management perspective