e-SOP System

For more than 50 years, the world from the factories to the corporate offices have accepted the idea of Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) as the quality assurance (or QA) method. It is a Critical Success Loop (CSL):

1. As the companies develop, grow, and mature, they want to be SOP-led for good purposes, i.e.,
   • to document their policy, processes & procedures in simple and clear manner, and
   • to ensure compliance and performance for continual learning, innovation, and improvement.
2. In general, the SOP are applicable to all these 3 levels, i.e. Strategic, Corporate & Operations.
3. At Ops level, some of the QA Check may have been incorporated into the ERP/CRM systems.
   • However, it is still good and necessary to document the processes.
   • as we do, it is not uncommon we realize there are procedures that still require human Interventions.
   • on top of above, there may more manual or man-in-the-loop procedures or SOP not supported by the existing systems.
4. Gradually, we shall continue to develop SOP for Corporate Governance and strategic levels as enterprise mature. It is likely there are more man-in-the-loop procedures & SOP.

After many years of ISO9001 foundation, we find many SMEs are still struggling to maintain and use their SOP.

The reasons are that the Papers Documentation are “hard” to assess  and very “hard” to comply.  Everything is still very much done manually.

Some of you many think your SOP are in Electronic format.  But they are merely Soft-Copy Document, which is Different from true Digitalisation.

So what is digital SOP. As seen, there are at least 3 ideas here.

1. We digitalise the job-role and the reporting structure in  each organisation. System can display the org-chart digitally with full knowledge of its structure and relationship.
2. For each instruction, system captures the 4W1H, i.e. what to do, who to do, how to do, when to do, and where are the evidence.
3. System also captures and enforces the input data, method of processing, and the documents and evidence as output.

Therefore, the e-SOP System is able to capture digitally the SOP, and in return system generate and print the SOP Document. This is the Generative Approach.

Now as the staff follow & comply with procedures, they may need to capture evidence, collect data/info, take the pictures, produce a doc, submit, get approval, etc.  The e-SOP system makes compliance and documentation seamless and transparent.

• These manual or man-in-the-loop SOP can now be supported or augmented by the e-SOP system

As seen above, the e-SOP System supports a cycle of 6 steps:

1. Capture SOP (Digitally)
2. Plan for Team & Operations
3. Support Compliance
4. Monitor Performance
5. Review SOP
6. Train & Develop Staff

In summary, this is truly a digital SOP System. It is designed to enable the proven QA method of plan-do-check-act cycle. And the e-SOP system makes compliance and documentation seamless and transparent.

We strongly advocate and expect to design and deploy the e-SOP system to achieve the desired outcomes of Compliance, Continuity & Productivity, which can more than justify the investment of the e-SOP System.

In the same way, we adopt e-SOP as EduTech and EduTrust solutions for Education Quality Management. Welcome your thoughts and ideas.