The spirit of Christmas may be behind us, but the spirit of Continuous Improvement never leaves us alone. (for better or worse, lol)

After months of minor changes and revisions off-line, the 2020 SOP templates have been released. Please note: These are IMPROVEMENTS, not compliance or safety-critical changes. As such, there is no need to go back and change your existing SOPs. We would, however, suggest you use these new formats as you implement new SOPs. Of course, it’s possible, you may want to take advantage of some of the features of these new SOP templates, and you’re welcome to convert to them if you have the time.

Changes to ALL SOP Templates:

  1. Moved “Covered Equipment” to “Objective” section which eliminates Document Info section.
  2. Moved “Related Documents” to “Objective” which eliminates Related Documents section.
  3. Removed “SOP Objective” from first section as the objective is repetitive and explained clearly in the Written Plan. (It’s the first text box of the SOP so it’s fairly obvious what the function is!)
  4. Made Safety Warning triangle smaller and made the warning RED. This change (among others) frees up a bit of room for the Safety, Health, Environmental and Equipment Considerations section
  5. Moved the Operator Requirements concerning authorization to the top of the Safety, Health, Environmental and Equipment Considerations section thus eliminating the Operator Requirements section. Also provided a callout to the operator to check their OT1 to ensure they’re qualified to perform the procedure.
  6. Modified the Operating Phase flowchart section layout to take up less space.
  7. Minimized the left-hand column which shows what “Section” you are in to 1” width to take up minimal space. Centered the section text.
  8. Placed Headings between sections. This required splitting up the various Operating Phase / Procedural sections but makes navigation much easier if being used in WORD or PDF format.
  9. Added complementary color to enlarged text “body” sections of Operating Phase / Procedural Sections.
  10. Valve / Component List given a header. Sub-header appropriately colored.

Why did we make those format changes?

  1. Those changes yield a slightly shorter SOP format (average 1 page loss per SOP)
  2. These are collections of various suggestions we’ve received over the past year from end-users.
  3. The resulting SOPs are much more visually appealing, especially on tablets.
  4. The resulting SOPs are much easier to navigate on tablets, which alot of users are implementing for their technicians.

 

Additional changes were made to some other SOP templates:

  1. HPRTSR: Updated the System Charging procedural section based on user feedback.
  2. HPR: Added a Cylinder Charging procedural section for those users that want that option.
  3. LEO: Traditional Permit LEO was simplified and now only has “Existing SOP,” “With Drain Valve,” and “Without Drain Valve” sections. The previous 4 possibilities was confusing to some and this one seems to be easier to understand.