Standardization of Operating Procedures as a Training Principal

Abstract

The production department of Company XYZ (this is not the real name of the company) observed a growing trend of human errors that caused significant downtime for the production lines. The intent of this study was to understand the causes of human errors and to identify possible solutions to could prevent them from happening again. Two main set of data were collected to investigate the issues and to come up with the best possible solutions for the company. First, real time information about the human errors that took place during a time period of twelve months was analyzed. Second, a questionnaire aimed to understand the possible barriers that could prevent the operators from performing their job successfully was answered by 8 employees. The data analysis concluded that there was an absence of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for multiple activities, and many of the existing standard procedures lacked important details; Therefore, the training of new employees and the way that regular operators performed their job was inconsistent and unreliable. Recommendations were made to review, update, and create standard operating procedures for every position at the production lines. As well as to re-train operators, improve their document control system, and implement a two-wayradio communication system for the plant.