It is old school thinking that processes and procedures need to be aligned. The writers of the standard never intended for that to be so. In the 2000 and 2008 versions in talking about the six topics that were required to be included in written procedures it went so far as to say in a note that each of the six could be covered in multiple procedures and that a procedure may address more than one of them. In the 2015 version the word procedure was completely removed.
Indeed an organization may choose to bundle several processes into one procedure (documented or not), for example:
Managing continual improvement (to remain competitive) could include:
- Analysing data and taking preventive action
- Controlling nonconformity and taking corrective action
- Reviewing system performance to target investment
Smaller organizations may already think and work this way.
Misunderstandings arise from our failure to carefully distinguish between process (work) and procedure (the specified way to carry out the work).
Processes are not procedures (according to the definitions we share) but thinking that processes and procedures are synonymous may be where the one to one (process to procedure) misperception comes from.