Integrating management system context

2. We are in the process of implementing ISO 9001:2015 in a dairy company and we are writing down our processes but can't cleary figure out the difference between work instructions and procedures e.g. should the stepwise description of how to determine butter fat content of milk be a procedure or a work instruction Kindly assist.

Answers:
1) You are partially correct. Due to Annex SL, the ISO document that dictates how they will structure management system standards, the requirements for context of the organization are almost identical. This means that you can use the sam e process for developing the context of the organization for each standard you implement, but this does not mean the output will be identical. For instance, your customers will be very interested parties for your quality management system (QMS), but not as much for your environmental management system (EMS). Likewise, your government agency for the environment will be interested in your EMS, but may not be at all interested in the QMS. The same thought needs to be applied to your internal and external issues, some issues will not be applicable to all management systems. The policy for each management system will very likely be different as well.

2) Work instructions are a special type of procedure, so it is not surprising that confusion exists. A procedure is simply a specific way of doing a process if this is required. A work instruction is a step-by-step procedure for a specific task, such as the stepwise instruction you mentioned.

For a better understanding of how to structure documentation in the QMS see this article, “How to structure quality management system documentation”; https://advisera.com/9001academy/knowledgebase/how-to-structure-quality-management-system-documentation/