What is a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)?
A Standard Operation Procedure is a procedure specific to your operation that describes the activities necessary to complete tasks in accordance with industry regulations, provincial laws or even just your own standards for running your business.
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) plays an important role in your business. SOPs are policies, procedures and standards you need within your business to ensure success.
These can create:
- efficiencies, and therefore profitability
- consistency and reliability in production and service
- fewer errors in all areas
- a way to resolve conflicts between partners
- a healthy and safe environment
- protection of employers in areas of potential liability and personnel matters
- a roadmap for how to resolve issues – and the removal of emotion from troubleshooting – allowing needed focus on solving the problem
- first line of defense in any inspection, whether it be by a regulatory body, a partner or potential partner, a client, or a firm conducting due diligence for a possible purchase
- value added to your business should you ever wish to sell it
Benefit of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in Logistics
If your goal is to produce the same product over the long term and increase your business productivity, the implementation of SOPs can have many benefits.
Routines
our company will look much more professional if all representatives are following certain established processes. Standard procedures will ensure they are able to handle any situation themselves without having to check on every single detail and verify everything with their supervisor.
Fewer Mistakes
The most obvious benefit. Well-designed SOP’s are developed to avoid most common mistakes and potential problematic situations. In logistics industry, small mistakes and overlooked details almost always cost you money.
Efficiency
y eliminating the guessing game, employees achieve better results by having solid foundation to build up on. Inefficient supply chain operations can ruin any business, whatever industry you are in.
Growth
As your organization grows, you may decide to set up different locations where employees will replicate the work processes of the original location. Having a standard operating procedure makes it easy to replicate processes across your organization. Employees at each location can use the same operating manual to identify how to perform a standard procedure. You can also track the productivity of each site based on the levels of performance for each standard operating procedure, which is good information to have if you must scale down the organization.
Christopher Morgan Fulfillment Services
A SOP is a living document, which is subject to change. (It is good to review it quarterly). It is therefore useful to have it in electronic format on a web-based collaborative system so that all employees have access to the latest version.
Do you need to put together a clear and straightforward SOP, compiled in simple language to convey practical information? Please don’t hesitate to contact us. Your business will thank you for it.
