Interesting Discussion Procedure vs. Work Instruction (WI) - What is the difference?

[Madfox]

As the prior posters noted, WI's are lower on the document chain.
A procedure can include one or multiple WI's to follow to fulfill the procedure.

In my opinion, more importantly, procedures are general and can be broken. WI's have to be followed to the letter. If not, bad product is made, things break, or people get hurt.

My analogy is the 400+ page flight operating manual I had to carry in a prior life. Even though it was "the law" there was a caveat at the beginning that basically said, "This [manual] does not absolve one of using common sense."

However, within the manual were highlighted pages of the checklist items (I think of as WI's) that had to be followed to the letter.

The Madfox

 

[katschance]

Thank you for your info, one more question. Can you just use procedures or do you have to include WI and/or do you have to have both? We manufacture a $200,000 machine that uses liquid nitrogen at very high pressures. Thanks Kathy

 

[Colin]

Kathy, there are some mandatory procedures which have to be documented (6 of them) and it is most likely that you will choose to document others such as sales, purchasing etc. Documented procedures are 1 way of controlling a process.

Work instructions are mostly optional. Clause 7.5.1 requires you to conduct your activities under 'controlled conditions' and having work instructions is one of the methods of doing this. It is often a balance between the competence of the people doing the job and what you write down for them to follow. Generally, the more competent the people, the less you have to write down e.g. you would not expect your dentist to get out a work instruction when he/she started to do your filling!!!!

 

[katschance]

Kathy, there are some mandatory procedures which have to be documented (6 of them) and it is most likely that you will choose to document others such as sales, purchasing etc. Documented procedures are 1 way of controlling a process.

Work instructions are mostly optional. Clause 7.5.1 requires you to conduct your activities under 'controlled conditions' and having work instructions is one of the methods of doing this. It is often a balance between the competence of the people doing the job and what you write down for them to follow. Generally, the more competent the people, the less you have to write down e.g. you would not expect your dentist to get out a work instruction when he/she started to do your filling!!!!

Colpart, (Your Name?)
Thank you for responding. We have several departments in our company that I have asked to write procedures. Specifically Engineering, Manufacturing, Inventory Control, Purchasing, Sales & Marketing and customer satisfaction. Are there any others I need to address. I am thinking that manufacturing might be a WI because there are specific instructions to build the machine. Thank you again. Kathy

 

[Ajit Basrur]

.........that I have asked to write procedures. Specifically Engineering, Manufacturing, Inventory Control, Purchasing, Sales & Marketing and customer satisfaction. Are there any others I need to address. I am thinking that manufacturing might be a WI because there are specific instructions to build the machine. Thank you again. Kathy

Hi Kathy,

Is your company ISO registered ? If yes, you should be having the 6 mandatory procedures which is referred by Colpart.

ISO 9001 requires you to have the 6 mandatory procedures and the other procedures are optional. In the hierarchy of documentation, you could list these 6 mandatory procedures as Level 2 and the specific procedures or WI could be categorised as Level 3.

Let me know if you need further assistance.

 

[katschance]

Hi, We are in the process of getting our documents ready for ISO. I have the 6 mandatory procedures. Now, I am trying to decide how to address the other areas, specifically engineering (design & development), manufacturing and the sales, contracts, and customer issues. Our senior engineer wants to be very generic in the design & development procedure? How generic can he get?

I am wondering if I could address management review, human resources, and training in the manual or would it be better to add more procedures? Our manual was taken from a very generic manual. I am afraid it is almost like the ISO Standard with the words rearranged.
I know this is a long post, but I need some goodadvice.
Kathy

 

[Colin]

Kathy, the areas you mention such as management review and HR can certainly be addressed in the manual if you wish. Perhaps you need to think about where would be the easiest place for people to access them. If you think anyone needing the information would look in the manual and find it OK then fine. However, you mention that your manual looks like the standard and I don't think that the standard makes easy reading.

There are many manuals that look like the standard and they get by OK, though it is not my preference to use the words of the standard. Generally, in procedures we can use more 'everyday language' (without the swearing!!) and simply tell people what is expected of them in language they understand.

Keep posting until you get what you want. Colin.

 

[katschance]

Kathy, the areas you mention such as management review and HR can certainly be addressed in the manual if you wish. Perhaps you need to think about where would be the easiest place for people to access them. If you think anyone needing the information would look in the manual and find it OK then fine. However, you mention that your manual looks like the standard and I don't think that the standard makes easy reading.

There are many manuals that look like the standard and they get by OK, though it is not my preference to use the words of the standard. Generally, in procedures we can use more 'everyday language' (without the swearing!!) and simply tell people what is expected of them in language they understand.

Keep posting until you get what you want. Colin.

Colin,
How funny, the ISO is very hard to understand. What do you mean by easy access for people? We have our procedures with our manual.

I have wrote a procedure for Management Responsibiltiy and Review, Training and Resources, and of course Document and Record control. I am working on Nonconformance right now. Some of the department managers are writing for their section and are asking me questions about procedure vs WI especially engineering and manufacturing. Can you have procedures without WI? Are WI controlled? Sorry for all the questions, but I am very new and this site is the only place I get real answers. By the way, we only have 6 employees in the engineering and R&D facility. Thank you for taking time with me. Kathy

 

[Colin]

By 'easy access', I mean that people can readily find the information they are looking for. If you have a manual of say, 20 pages and perhaps 12 procedures with 3 or 4 pages in them, that is a lot of pages for people to go through in order to find what they need.

Personally, I keep the manual separate from the procedures because it only tends to be used infrequently while procedures are more likely to be used more often.

Certainly you can, and most often will, have procedures without WI's. WI's are only needed where you need to explain something in more detail. I would control WI's in a similar way to procedures because they may be subject to change and if they are, you will want to know who has copies and what version they are at.

 

[Greg B]

Colin,
How funny, the ISO is very hard to understand. What do you mean by easy access for people? We have our procedures with our manual.

I have wrote a procedure for Management Responsibility and Review, Training and Resources, and of course Document and Record control. I am working on Non conformance right now. Some of the department managers are writing for their section and are asking me questions about procedure vs WI especially engineering and manufacturing. Can you have procedures without WI? Are WI controlled? Sorry for all the questions, but I am very new and this site is the only place I get real answers. By the way, we only have 6 employees in the engineering and R&D facility. Thank you for taking time with me. Kathy

Welcome Kathy

1: Here is my basic description of what all the documents mean. I have made it into a schematic called the Document Pyramid
Procedures: Defines Who, What, When, Where and Why (Broad Picture)...whereas
Work Instructions: Answers How we do IT! (More specific).
2: YES..You can have Procedures without WI. Our Management Review Procedure and Internal Audit procedures do not link to a WI.
3: Although WI do not have to be controlled if that is what your system SAYs..I strongly advises that they be controlled as you need to ensure they are kept current
4: Never be sorry for asking questions. That is what we do here...We Ask, Debate (sometimes roughly LOL) and try and answer questions
Here is my Power Point presentation on Why we have Quality Systems and Process Mapping. The first presentation is a hands on classroom exercise and contains notes for the instructor/facilitator.