SOP

One file per procedure. A fixed shape, because comparability is the point — anyone should be able to open any SOP in your company and know where to look.

Two rules that decide whether an SOP set is useful or decorative.

The record is the data. Every SOP produces a record as a by-product of doing the work — a log entry, a signed sheet, a tracker row. Then your metrics fall out of work you were already doing, instead of requiring a separate reporting exercise that stops happening by month three.

Operators correct it. An SOP drafted top-down, or by an AI, is wrong in specific ways only the person doing the job knows: a missing step, the wrong approver, a number that changed last year. It is not real until they have marked it up.


SOP ID	`[e.g. OPS-04]`
Version	`1.0`
Effective from
Last reviewed
Process owner	`[one named person who runs it]`
Approver	`[one named person who signs off exceptions]`
Frequency	`[per order / daily / weekly / monthly / on trigger]`
Trigger	`[what starts it]`

Definition

[Two or three sentences. What this procedure is for and what it produces. Written for someone who has never done it.]

Scope

Covers: [ ] Does not cover: [ → which SOP handles that instead]

Process

Step	Action	Who does it	Who approves	Record produced
1
2
3
4
5

Every step names a person, not a department. "Operations checks it" is how a step gets skipped for six months.

Quality checkpoints

At which step	What is checked	Against what standard	What happens on a fail

Output


What this produces
Where the record is kept
How long it is kept
Which metric it feeds	→ `stack/10-pulse`

Exceptions

Situation	What to do	Who decides


Other SOPs
Systems and tools
Forms and templates
Regulatory requirement, if any

Notes from the operator

(Left blank on purpose. The person who does this work fills it in during review. This is where the SOP becomes true.)

Review log

Date	Reviewed by	Changed

Review cadence: monthly for the first quarter, then quarterly. Bring the team together, walk the SOPs, ask what is wrong and what has changed. Ask what is annoying — the annoying steps are where the workarounds and the errors live.

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