SOP Glossary

A visual marker (arrow, shape, text, or callout) added on top of an image or video frame in an SOP to point operators at the exact thing that matters.

A standardised graphical notation for drawing business processes as flowcharts that both business and technical people can read.

Switching a machine or line from one product to the next. Changeover time runs from the last good piece of product A to the first good piece of product B.

An ongoing effort to improve products, processes, and services by making small changes regularly, rather than relying on big one-time initiatives.

Training employees to perform tasks outside their primary role so the team can cover absences, balance load, and keep operations running.

The structured process of bringing a new hire from offer letter to fully productive team member, covering paperwork, training, and role-specific qualification.

The formal, documented system used in regulated manufacturing to propose, assess, approve, implement, and verify any change that could affect product quality.

On-farm and post-harvest practices addressing food safety, worker health and safety, the environment, and quality in producing and handling fresh produce and other crops.

A systematic, preventive food-safety system that identifies biological, chemical, and physical hazards and controls them at critical control points, built on seven principles.

The most detailed tier of quality-system documentation: task-level instructions that show how to perform a single step. ISO 9001 allows them but does not require them.

A four-step training method from the Training Within Industry program, used to teach a job correctly the first time. Supported by a one-page Job Breakdown Sheet (JBS).

A technique that breaks a job into its basic steps, identifies the hazards in each step, and sets controls to eliminate or reduce them. Also called a job hazard analysis (JHA).

The Japanese practice of continuous improvement through small, incremental changes made by everyone, every day. It literally means 'change for the better.'

The discipline of capturing, organising, and sharing what an organisation knows so that the right information reaches the right people at the right time.

Controlling hazardous energy during machine servicing: isolating energy sources, applying locks and tags, and verifying zero energy before work, as set out in OSHA 1910.147.

A document that describes, in logical sequence, exactly how a specific higher-risk task will be carried out safely, using control measures drawn from the risk assessment.

A policy is a rule or position that sets the what and the why. A procedure is the how: the ordered steps people follow to comply with that policy.

Scheduled, time- or usage-based maintenance performed on a fixed interval to reduce the likelihood of failure, as opposed to reactive maintenance done only after a breakdown.

The practice of recording how work gets done so that the knowledge lives outside one person's head, in a form others can read, follow, and improve.

A structured set of policies, procedures, and records that an organisation uses to meet quality requirements and improve over time.

The combined package, common in UK and Ireland construction, that pairs a risk assessment with a method statement so hazards and the safe step-by-step method live in one document.

A step-by-step operational document that walks someone through a specific recurring task or incident, from trigger to resolution, so anyone can execute it the same way.

An SOP defines how a process works end to end. A work instruction tells one operator how to perform one specific task within that process.

A document between an SOP and a work instruction. Defines the procedure for one section of a larger process. Common in pharma, aerospace, and military quality systems.

A documented set of step-by-step instructions that defines how a recurring task or process should be performed.

A lean manufacturing concept: the current best-known way to perform a task, defined precisely enough to be repeated and improved.

The lean manufacturing version of a work instruction, with takt time and a fixed work sequence built in. Treated as the current best-known method, not a fixed rule.

A short, informal pre-work safety briefing on one specific hazard or topic, given to a crew on-site (often daily). It supplements formal training rather than replacing it.

The undocumented know-how that lives only in the heads of experienced workers and walks out the door when they leave.

A task-level document that tells one person, at one workstation, exactly how to perform a specific job using specific tools.