Guest
Please could someone help my understanding of SOPs. I've reviewed some generic SOPs for certain subjects and confused. I've spoken to a number of UK based consultants and I've had different explanations and still none the wiser.
Where I'm struggling is the correlation between a policy, (what we will do I believe) and SOPs (who and how etc?) and beyond that SWIs
As an example, if you took Welding would you have a general SOP which covers the general management of welding hazards and then a number of supplemental SOPs for the different welding tasks? We have welders within our organisation and the welding hazards are the same but the tasks are different? So could you have 10 SOPs for welding or would you have 1 broad general SOP and 9 SWIs for the different welding tasks.
Also how do you avoid duplication? I'm guessing a lot of procedures around a similar topic are going to be similar.
Working at Height is another example which I've seen. Working at Height has many other areas associated with it - use of stepladders, use of ladders, use of scaffolding, use of powered access etc. Back to my point above, is it numerous different WAH SOPs or one general SOP supplemented with SWIs for the tasks associated with WAH?
Apologies for the long winded question, if someone can educate me on this point and maybe provide some examples I would be eternally grateful. This really has me down a rabbit hole
Thanks