Standard Operating Procedure

About this template

A sheet posted at the work area

A checklist for verifying that a standard procedure is really followed. The header says it is procedure SOP-01, to be posted at the work area, so it is meant to be printed and kept on site, and the last line states that the sheet is retained for three years from the date the inspection is completed. Nine items numbered 1 to 9 run across three STEPs, each closing with a rating and a signature. It records compliance rather than describing the procedure, so every item must read as something you can answer yes or no to. The owner column carries only three roles – operator, shift leader, quality inspector – so start by mapping any role your organization does not have onto a real job title.

Working through the inspection

1. Head the overview table with the work date, the person performing the work and the target process, then tick one of normal, rework or trial run. It identifies the work itself, not the inspector or the department.
2. “3 steps” and “9 items” in the progress summary are fixed; completed items and progress are filled in last.
3. Work down STEP 1 pre-work preparation, STEP 2 standard execution, STEP 3 quality check, ticking three boxes in each. As the instruction line says, every item in a step must be complete before the next step begins.
4. Where follow-up is needed, put the reason and the due date in the remarks column, tick “needs improvement” in the step rating, and sign the inspector confirmation line. The execution-order column, numbered like “step 1 – 1”, is where you confirm nothing was skipped.
5. Section I, procedure annex checks, has six rows – scope, safety rules, tools, work records, deviation handling, revision history – and the “verification method / supporting document” column is blank. Write the actual document you will open for each row, or two inspectors will reach two verdicts.
6. Section II, target metrics, has four rows: 7 procedure steps, tolerance +/-0.5, a 30-minute reporting deadline, a two-year revision cycle. Record the measured result and mark met or not met.
7. Section III, period-by-period implementation, has four rows – preparation, execution, inspection, recording – and both the plan and actual columns are blank. Fill in the plan values yourself, then the actuals, then tick one of 20 to 100 for attainment.
8. Section IV, the deficiency register, takes only the item numbers rated for follow-up. Then section V for the final rating and the inspector, reviewer and department head signatures, and one line in section VI, the inspection history.

Sample entries

• Item 5, record measurements at each step – remarks, e.g. “measurements missing at steps 3 and 5, work log to be rewritten, due D-5”.
• Section II, tolerance +/-0.5 – measured result, e.g. “max deviation +/-0.8”, rated not met.
• Section III, execution row, e.g. plan 45 minutes, actual 27 minutes, tick 60.
• Section IV, one line, e.g. item No 5 / measurements not recorded / distribute recording form / due D-5.

How progress is counted

Progress = completed items / 9 x 100, counting ticked items only: six gives about 67%. That figure goes in twice, as the same number – once in the top progress summary and once in the “of 9 items” box in section V. The rating vocabulary is defined in the footer: pass means no defect, follow-up means re-inspect after action, not applicable means out of scope. Use the same meanings in both the step rating and the final rating. A conditional pass needs a re-inspection date, copied into the “next inspection” column of section VI. The two-year revision cycle in section II means that whenever the procedure itself is revised, the nine items must be revised in the same round.

What voids an inspection

• Ticking “needs improvement” with empty remarks; nothing reaches the register in section IV, so nobody knows the reason next round.
• Excluding open items from the denominator – it is always 9.
• Ticking the boxes in section I while leaving the verification-method and owner columns blank. Without naming the document, the verdict changes with the inspector.
• Skipping the per-step signature. Each STEP has its own inspector confirmation line, so there are three, and the inspector, reviewer and department head signatures in section V are separate from those.
• Changing a threshold in one place only. Item 7 (hold tolerance within +/-0.5) matches the tolerance row in section II, and item 4 (run steps 1 through 7 in order) matches the 7 procedure steps in section II; edit each pair together.
• Skipping the history in section VI. Retention is fixed at three years, so the round-by-round record is the audit trail.