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amanbhai
What is the definition & difference of SOP, Work instructions & procedures?
Positively
Positively
Ederie said:I always associated SOP with Standard Operating Procedure.
Our manual goes Policy, SOP and then work instructions.
Just a matter of culture? or am I wrong?
Thanks,
Ed
Let us say you have a 1000 employee organization. Do you believe that you can communicate your operating procedures to all the employees without documenting (except for the 6 required) them?Steve Z said:The definition I have always heard for SOP is Standard Operating Procedure. This should be no different than your term "procedure". It is what you are going to do to satisfy the requirements of the standard. Our consultant told us not to add any more procedures that the standard requires. Extra procedures then become your addition to the standard, and any failure to describe how you satisfy the "shalls" of your procedure can be considered a major breakdown in your system.
Work Instructions are the "how you address satisfying the SOP" documents.
A simple tree would be...
The standard says you will have a documented procedure for planning and conducting audits.
Your SOP basically states that you will conduct audits at planned intervals, using trained auditors, etc.
Your work instruction(s) will state when these planned intervals will occur, how you will train the auditors, etc.
The rest of the tree would be the forms you use and the records you keep.
Hope this answers the question.
They're still documented procedures whatever form they take.morgand said:You have your required procedures, which have to address specific topics, but after that, the definitions and how they interact with one another are up to you so long as you can explain the interaction and use if effectively. A hieratical system is the most common, such as a pyramid.
I've seen 2 places with over 200 employees where the only procedures were the 6 required. Their next level was process materials (high level- mainly flowcharts), followed by instructional materials (very detailed-used for training and reference). These were the labels used by one group, the other I don't recall off the top of my head.
Al Rosen said:They're still documented procedures whatever form they take.