What are the benefits of using digital SOP’s?

The Advantages of using Digital SOPs

Manufacturers who use paper-based SOP’s face administrative errors as paper can be easily misplaced and damaged, susceptible to human error. Most businesses are aiming to become as “green” as possible so using a digital SOP makes sense. In addition, they enable the operator to consult with an SOP anytime, anywhere and, as they include troubleshooting steps, maintenance issues will become easier to resolve and maintenance will be of a higher quality.

Digital SOP’s provide instant visibility helping your workers to search for documents in a shorter amount of time, and if they need editing or sharing, this can be done instantaneously and deployed to others.

For machine safety, digital standard operating procedures will make it easier to know which tasks are being completed and reviewed. This gives confidence that employees are following the correct protocols on a piece of machinery or equipment. In the unfortunate event of an accident, the digital SOP can be easily accessed to demonstrate to enforcement authorities that SOPs are in place.

When SOPs are digitised, they can be centrally managed to create, assign, deploy, review and update. You get a change history and can monitor the workflow and progress in keeping them up to date. On a whole this will help keep track of production quality in real-time.

Other benefits include:

EASY ACCESS - SOP’s can be easily adjusted and updated factory wide.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT – as the SOP is managed digitally, it enables the user to make changes instantaneously.

IMPROVED COMPREHENSION - Enables embedded photographs and videos which makes the Standard operating procedure easier to follow and understand.

REDUCED TRAINING COSTS – as the digital SOP is stored on the cloud, it enables new employees to start using the piece of equipment as soon as possible.

ORGANISATIONAL KNOWLEDGE - This has the further benefit of reducing the negative consequences of expertise walking out of your factory.

When SOP’s are paper-based the administrative burden can cause delays in production workflow as they need to be edited, printed and distributed to team members, this will impact on the management’s daily tasks and take up valuable time making it less likely to happen at all in some cases. Storing paper- based SOP’s also comes with its downfalls – they are susceptible to becoming lost, damaged, moved to a different location, and edited without management approval.

Digital SOP’s will save you time on process completion, increase productivity, improve product quality, and improve compliance.

Please Read our SOP Guide to learn more = The Complete SOP Guide