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What Is An SOP?
SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) Like many subjects in Lean, Standardization / Standard Work / Standard Operating Procedures / Standard Work Instructions, (call it what you will!) is often approached in a really boring way. It might be really effective, but boy is it boring Whilst there are thousands of experts and consultants who really enjoy this, most of the rest of us (including me) find this sleep inducing, so at GembaDocs, we like to KISS it. Keep It Simple Stupid.
So What Is An SOP? People split hairs around what the definition of a Standard Operating Procedure is. For some, it is more of a policy rather than a detailed description of how a process is carried out, for us at GembaDocs, an SOP can be defined as an “agreed, clear & standardized way of doing something.” The 3 key words explained in order, are; “agreed” this is probably the most important word in our definition. The traditional way in most companies for developing standards is that it is done by management / supervisory people, then “imposed” on the people actually doing the work.
This is what leads to the stifling “audit culture” that many so-called Lean organizations have to endure. The only reason that audits are necessary is that the people actually doing the task have no ownership of that process. So we need some police to make sure they are being “complied with.” This is why the process of creating standards is best LED by those actually DOING the job, not those WATCHING people doing the job. Even with that intention, traditional technology acts as a barrier towards keeping ownership where it rightly belongs, with those DOING the work. With traditional methods, a supervisor will take notes and photographs of a process, then go back to their office and create a document in word / excel / powerpoint, spend hours working on it to bring it back out to the people in the shop, who inevitably will ask for changes and so on and so on. It takes hours and often days.
The very act of the process “being taken away” by the supervisor into their office and then brought back out, gives the feeling to the shopfloor people that this is a “management thing.” One of the reasons we called our software “GembaDocs” is because it facilitates the ENTIRE PROCESS of creating an SOP to be done on the Gemba and our mobile app is simple enough to use that the process of documenting a process can be done by the people doing the work, with support and facilitation from the right functional support people. It enables a fully collaborative process. The ownership and the “agreement” happens directly at the place of work. Zero seperation. With GembaDocs, “agreed!” is a given.
“clear” in our definition means that the information on how to do “x” is comprehensible and available to all, at the place where the information is required. In traditional settings, processes are often undocumented and those executing task x have developed their own way of doing it, either on their own or trained up to some extent by another team member who has more experience than them. The organizations survive with tribal knowledge that is buried in the heads of the experienced staff. For management, this presents a nightmare when that knowledge walks out the door. For a newbie, this situation can be truly daunting. Often these environments result in what I call “microwave training” where a new start is shown how to do a task once by a colleague.
The training that should take hours, is done in a few minutes (hence the microwave analogy!) and then the newbie is thrown in at the deep end to sink or swim. Strangely enough, in this scenario, only the strongest survive! High staff churn / turnover is the inevitable outcome and quality / productivity suffer as the experienced staff constantly have to look after the 20% odd of team members who need help. It’s a vicious spiral that real, living breathing standards can help to break. If the process is documented at all, they are often walls of text that are indecipherable to all but the most intimately acquainted with the product or process and then more often than not, stored in a folder that gathers dust in a cupboard somewhere, only to be dug out when there is a quality audit. The box might be ticked, but in reality the process is far from clear.
In the “yes, it’s documented” situation, I often ask when is the last time the process was updated, typically to receive a reply that details months or years… it seems you haven’t been doing much improvement then? The truth is that in these situations, the process to update a documented standard is so cumbersome that nobody ever bothers and therefore the “documented standards” become what I call wallpaper. Looks nice but doesn’t do much for your product quality, the consistency of your process output or your customers’ experience. With the GembaDocs software, we address all of these issues too. The step by step process descriptions with photographs that can be annotated, with a 120 character limit to each step forces simplicity and helps support clarity.
Our clients make sure that they are available by various methods. They can be printed out and posted at a workplace, a QR code can be posted at the Gemba, they can be viewed within the mobile app or stored as an always up to date url shortcut on a computer. It’s so easy and process changes can be updated in the SOP’s in seconds. A customer recently told me that this enables “standards to be respected” because all the excuses that people habitually make as to why they are not respected have been removed. Standards are easy to make, edit, share and distribute to those who need to know. Simple.
“standardised way of doing something” in our definition means “a single method.” When the right process is followed “on the Gemba” with a collaborative approach to developing the process with the do-ers leading that process, what often happens is what I call the “best of” process gets developed. Up until this point, everyone has been executing task x in the best way that they know, but now when we assemble all the people and we go through a process of standardisation by collecting everyone’s input, we often get an amalgamation of everyone’s best thinking. It’s hard to put across how fun and energising this process can be, as the participants bounce ideas off each other and the standard process evolves into being.
Again, the tradtional “take notes and go back to the office” approach falls down badly here. The iterations take far too long and the process never feels like more than simply documenting “what is.” Not much craic (fun – as we say in Ireland!). With GembaDocs, this process of standardising becomes an exciting process of developing the best method on the spot. We can move this step, edit that text, change that photograph, all instantaneously with no waiting and it becomes living and breathing before our eyes as a team. When this is happening “standardisation” has a whole new meaning. Gone is the boring compliance and welcome to unleashing your organisation’s creativity, where standards are perceived as something to support people in their work, not an extra burden.