SOPs,Staff Training

Welcome to the first installment of “What’s That Engineer Doing in My Vivarium” where we will share with you all types of information and insight on new methods and technology that can be applied in lab animal research facilities, to reduce costs and improve operations. Our perspective in providing you these ideas is based on over 50 years of combined experience in lean manufacturing and industrial engineering in a variety of fields, where the focus is always on continuous improvement in business processes, quality, productivity, operating cost, and other key factors. And now, on to our first article……….

What if we were to tell you that the written standard operating procedures (SOPs) commonly used by most institutions and commercial enterprises in their lab animal facilities aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on? Would you be surprised? I know you’re likely to tell us that you’re organization is following ISO standards, and you’ve been doing it that way for umpteen years, so it must work. Right?  

Wrong. The approach that managers and supervisors usually take in developing SOPs is in most cases fundamentally flawed for a variety of reasons. Let’s look at how these documents are typically developed and the specific reasons why they don’t work. To do that, let’s first understand the basic objective in creating this document in the first place.

The key word here is standard, which by dictionary meaning is “something established by authority, custom, or general consent as a model or example.” Most institutions and companies set standards and document them so that by doing a task the same way every time, it should provide consistent results. That's why we expend the effort to create, organize, file, update, audit, and tell people how to follow standard procedures.

So who creates these SOPs? Typically, these standards are written by managers, supervisors, or engineers as a representation of what the “authority” or regulations have mandated for a particular process or set of tasks.  One of the problems is that most of them are written in a way that the actual users don't necessarily understand and can’t effectively apply on a regular basis.  The SOP may tell them what to do, but not necessarily how to actually accomplish their specific tasks in an effective and repeatable manner.

The other problem with a typical SOP is the way in which they are handled after they’ve been created. Once the SOP is complete, the author is likely to fire off a copy to everyone in the facility accompanied by an email stating that thou shall follow this SOP, file a copy in the big thick book of other SOPs, and comfortably move on knowing that from then on everything is going to be done right because the procedure is published. But the outcome is anything but perfect or standard.