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Do We Have a Procedure for That?
Posted by Don Reed
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If you hear that question from anyone other than a new employee or a novice in your organization, then you might have a quality system problem. People who execute processes should know whether or not a procedure exits for a process. The process experts (those who execute the process on a regular basis) should have a role in creating and/or maintaining procedures. Plus, they should have been trained, formally or informally, on the process and the procedure. They should know that they are executing the process according to the procedure.
Occasional process participants (i.e. the expert’s back-up, or for processes that are executed infrequently) should rely on procedures because they are not thoroughly familiar with the process. They should know about existing procedures as well.
If the process experts or even occasional users do not know about a procedure, the problem likely stems from several possible areas.
Poor Procedures: Perhaps the procedures themselves are too long, too confusing, too hard to use, poorly written, and perhaps even hopelessly inaccurate. Such procedures are typically ignored in organizations, and for good reason. Pretty soon they are forgotten relics.
Poor Communication: If training and auditing methods are inadequate, then there may not be enough awareness of procedures. Throughout the organization, training should explain why procedures are important, how to find them, how to change them if they are wrong, and what procedures are relevant to particular processes.
Poor Document Control: Without a good system to manage your documents so people can easily find procedures, retrieve them, etc.., then once again there is good change people will just ignore them. Procedures are supposed to help members of the organization, not add an additional bureaucratic maze.
So if you have a problem with your colleagues not knowing that procedures exists, or the existing procedures not being used in your organization, there is a good chance there is room for improvement in one or more of these areas.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
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