| Cover Story PART 1 OF A TWO-PART PROCEDURES SERIES How to drive performance improvement and increase shop organization By David A. Kolman, Editor The effective use of standard operating procedures Challenges in any maintenance shop are increasing technician performance, improving operational efficiency, ensuring work consistency and quality and lessening the learning curve and training time for new technicians. One method to successfully address these impediments is the use of standard operating procedures (SOPs). SOPs are a set of detailed, step-by-step, how-to instructions that define or standardize a procedure for the completion of a routine task or specific function so that any employee can carry out a task correctly, the same way, every time. Achieving uniformity in a given practice and level of quality is an effective catalyst to drive performance improvement and increase organization through constant implementation of a process or procedure. Many shops require strict adherence to a set of instructions to make sure the intended outcome occurs. Because even the best employees don’t have perfect memories, having a set of written instructions they can refer to when performing the steps of the process ensures everything is done correctly. “The term ‘standard operating procedure’ can sound intimidating, but it is really just a description of the steps individuals or organizations use to carry out specific tasks or processes,” says Teresa Tarwater, Comprose’s vice president of marketing. Continued page 10 8 FLEET MAINTENANCE ❚ APRIL 2016 ❚ VehicleServicePros.com
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