Hi guys, this is Maria Helena Savino, we are going to our next video lesson from that one of that basics series. And in today's video class the theme will be: How to design standard operating procedures. So what is the standard operating procedure?
I like to bring everyday examples to relate to the lab, because I think that makes things easier. So the standard operating procedure is the recipe, These are recipes for how to perform tasks within a company. And it aims to standardize processes, standardize the way people perform the process within the company.
So what is the importance of process standardization? The importance of process standardization comes in many ways, the main one being that all the technicians perform the activities the same way, I like to give the example of two bakers in a bakery, It's a cake A, baker 1 likes to make cake A one way and baker 2 likes to make another way. So in the background there is no cake A, there is cake A from baker 1 and cake A from baker 2.
But in the lab we can't take that risk, In the laboratory all technicians have to perform the activities according to the reference standards. And a second very relevant question in the process standardization issue, is that when the company describes the processes in procedures it takes knowledge out of people's heads and makes knowledge a property of the company, is this bad for those who know? Not because knowledge doesn't get out of the coach's head, but it frees the company from questions like, I've seen a lot of situations and you may have seen it a lot that in one company only one person has that relevant knowledge.
So if she is on vacation or she attends a meeting, often the company to because knowledge is only in people's minds, so standardization makes knowledge a property of the company, that is, knowledge is accessible to everyone involved in the process. Well, this model, today in this video class I will present to you a model, An example I like to follow, but there are several types of templates, various types of codes. Most importantly, you know the importance of turning processes into patterns.
So I'll talk about a model, something else, this model if you are interested in receiving this procedure, this editable Word procedure template, you go to our blog, leave a comment with your email and we will send you the model, ok? If you want to use it in your daily life, in your company, anyway. Where should we apply procedures?
Companies, teams, when they start the management system deployment processes, there is thus a panic, an intense desire to standardize everything, so people start to standardize, like opening the door, closing the fridge, and things don't work that way. I already a student he told me: Teacher I have in the company I work for we have a procedure to use water fountain. I figured, well, you have a procedure to do the control the water fountain, if it is contaminated or not?
No, I have procedure for handle the water cooler. That is, you do not need a procedure to handle the water cooler, You need a procedure on how to perform a particular analysis or how to take a sample. So the definition of procedure, from where it applies, goes from the criterion of the company's critical analysis.
And I suggest that you do not go out doing procedure for everything, the procedure must be written in critical processes, ok? So let's start now with the basic summary. The basic summary of this procedure of this model of ours has purpose, field of application, you see here on the slide, I'll talk about each of these summary items for you.
First objective item, the objective when writing a procedure, the goal should be described in a very simple and straightforward way it seems very quiet but sometimes I see goals with 3, 4 or 5 paragraphs, the goal is what you should say what that procedure is for example let's take that Ph analysis procedure, what is the purpose of this POP, this POP is the nickname of the most famous standard operating procedure, but there are several nicknames for it too, so what is the purpose of the PH analysis procedure? The purpose of this procedure is to describe the steps for performing the point PH analysis. The next item is the application field, where I will apply this procedure, so this procedure applies the pH analyzes in the lab, and in field analysis, that is, in the collection if you do collection, so the field of application is where you will use this procedure information.
The next, critical equipment and supplies, you will describe there in this field what are the equipment necessary to carry out that process and what inputs are required to carry out that process process, it's like a cake recipe, what ingredients do I need to make a cake and what equipment I need to make a cake, I need an oven, I need a thermometer to know what the oven temperature is, in the end, each test, each calibration has its specific requirements, so you will describe this in the procedures. Another item is acronyms, certain processes they have many acronyms. many big, difficult names, so you must have a field where you will name, describe that acronym and in the text in the procedure you don't have to keep repeating that bunch of words, so we will put the acronym, this is very common in a summary, any text.
another item is the definitions, which are the relevant definitions definitions that will be applied in that process, I also see, acronyms and definitions there depends on the taste, the important thing is that these acronyms and definitions are described in the procedure. And item six is the most important, is the procedure itself, is the description of the steps for a given process, in this procedure you should put beyond the recipe, In addition to the steps on how to perform an analysis, you can put information that facilitates conducting this analysis, I will give an example here, You will do a glucose analysis, and here comes the procedure: homogenize the sample. Homogenize the sample.
But homogenize the sample you can homogenize in many ways, you can homogenize in an equipment, in a vortex, you can homogenize with agitation, or you can slightly homogenize with allipitic movements, so in your procedure it is highly recommended that you describe how to homogenize, why homogenization in certain cases is absolutely relevant to the result of the analysis. then the procedure in addition to describing the step by step of performing the process, You can also include ways to make it easier, to make that process faster, safer. Another item that we suggest here in our model is the records item, we have already done a video lesson As we speak of quality documents, the records they are the most important information of the laboratory because in the end they are the results of their measurements, their calibrations, so in the procedure you should describe where the records of that analysis will be made, so our suggestion is that in the item records the name of the form, the pattern, the templete, in the end, each company establishes, baptizes its means of keeping the records, so you must list in that procedure, where you will record that test, that calibration, if you also want registration templates, blog, leave your email, and say what you wish we will send to you we also have the next item, it's item 8, it's the revision history, what this history, which means revision history, is very common, I always see that, the company starts to standardize she writes the first procedure, when she puts that procedure into practice she starts to notice that there are possibilities improvement, you may need to add new steps or take some steps, then will change the initial procedure by a new version or a new revision of that procedure, and it is a requirement of some standards that the laboratory, which the company establishes, she demonstrates that she was moved from one to another, so there are several ways, you can keep all procedures for the entire life of the procedure, or you can record in a specific field what changes from one to another, we here in our pattern we call revision history, If you want to see the model of the procedure I've already said, just send us an email, Just send us a comment on the blog and we'll send the email.
And the reference questions, it is very important for the lab to define which references it is using to perform that analysis, which standard specifies, I will give a very common example that is the example of water sampling, you can sample according to standard med or according to an ABNT, so there in your procedure you should put which standard you used and most importantly besides talking about what norm you should put it In the latest valid version, this is also a requirement of some quality standards. And the last item is attachments, attachments are information that you might consider relevant for a good understanding of the procedure, sometimes an attachment may have a table, a text or reference that can help that technician develop his essay better. So on the issue of elaborating the procedures is this our model, This is our example.
I would like to ask you if you are really enjoying our videos, if you are enjoying our video lessons, that you subscribe to our channel so you can receive firsthand videos, we are working to release one video per week or a video every 10 days, right? So thank you so much for once again watching our video lesson, a hug and see you next time.
