Safe Operating Procedures SOPs

CHAPTER THIRTEEN SAFE OPERATING PROCEDURES (SOPs) 

Safe Operating Procedures (SOPs) or Standard Operating Procedures should include safety as a part of the standard operating practices which are delineated within it. Workers may not automatically understand a taskjust because they have experience or training. Thus, many jobs, tasks, and operations are best supported by an SOP. The SOP walks the worker through the steps of how to do a task or procedure in a safe manner and calls attention to the potential hazards at each step. 

You might ask why an SOP is needed if the worker has already been trained to do the job or task. As you may remember fiom the previous chapter, a job safety analysis usually keys in on those particular jobs which pose the greatest risk of injury or death. These are high risk types of woifc activities and definitely merit the development and use of an SOP. There are times when an SOP, or step-by-step checklist, are useful. Some of these times are as follows  

Experienced worker is performing a job or task for the first time. 

A Safe Operating Procedure (SOP) or Standard Operating Procedure should include safety and health as a part of the standard operating practices delineated within it. The SOP is a set of written instructions that documents a routine or repetitive activity followed by an organization. The development and use of SOPs are an integral part of a successful quality system as it provides workers with information to perform a job properly and safely while facilitating consistency in the quality and integrity of a product or end result. 

Mistakes could cause damage to equipment or property. 

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For all operations, activities or tasks, written procedures usually termed Safe Operating Procedures (SOPs) should be made, vetted by a Committee of Experts (COE) and approved by the Central Authority. Subsequently, no deviation/s should be made without the approval of the Central Authority. All operations or activities should be supervised by the next level of leadership, that is, supervisor or senior scientist. Thus, careful planning and strict supervision must be followed to eliminate accidents or fires. 

Do job observations result in new work practices, workplace design, training, retraining, and task analysis including Job Safety Analysis (JSA) or Safe Operating Procedure (SOP) ... 

Protective equipment (e.g., eye protection, temporary barriers, clothing and/or gloves, respirators, etc.) is recommended, for example, only if the hazard analysis indicated a need, or if the Safe Operating Procedure (SOP) requires periods of beam access such as during setup or infrequent maintenance activities. Temporary protective measures for service can be handled in a manner similar to the service of any embedded Class IV laser. 

Safe Operating Procedures (SOPs) or standard operating procedures should include safety as a part of the standard operating practices, which are delineated within it. Workers may not... 

D. Task-specific hazard analyses must lead to the development of written standard operating procedures (SOPs) that specify the controls necessary to safely perform each task. Detailed hazard analyses conducted for each site task and operation provide the basis for developing SOPs to protect employees from safety and health hazards. Written SOPs provide a mechanism for informing employees of procedures that ensure their safety and for enabling management to enforce hazard control procedures. 

Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are step-by-step job instructions which can help workers perform their jobs safely and efficiently. When the end users are involved in their design, SOPs can provide a basis for arriving at a method of work agreed-to by different shifts. In this sense, SOPs can be used to develop training programs and specify measures of competence. Because of the importance of SOPs in the work situation, a systematic framework is needed to enable the design of reliable procedures which are acceptable by the workforce. 

Provision of adequate competent medical staff is essential for the safe and ethical conduct of studies in humans. Decisions about whether a volunteer fulfils the entry criteria for a healthy subject or should be withdrawn from a study, how to respond to an unexpected adverse event and when to discontinue a study can prove challenging to the most experienced physician. Similarly, research nurses need many organisational and other skills over and above those that they acquired during their basic clinical training. Scientific staff must be competent in the techniques that will provide the essential data. All must be properly briefed about what will be required of them during the course of a study, and must be fully familiar with local standard operating procedures (SOPs) in compliance with good clinical practice (GCP). 

An SOP (Standard or Safe Operating Procedure) is a document that describes the regularly recurring operation relevant to quality and safe performance. The purpose of the SOP is to carry out the operations correctly and always in the same manner. An SOP should be available at the place where the work is performed. 

Generally, these safe work practices will be standard procedures, analogous to the development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) discussed above. 

Precautionary information provided in the overall safety policy further explains common labeling themes. Ultimately, increased safe behavior, enforced by policy, eliminates the need for burdensome labeling information. Some of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) integrated with the label system are listed below. 

Safe Operating Procedures are only useful when they are up-to-date and readily accessible at the actual job or task site. Since we have the ability to store SOPs in the computer, revisions can be made simply and ate therefore easily ehanged if you receive good suggestions fiom supervisors or workers. Figure 13-2 shows a picture of a forklift and Eigute 13.3 shows an example of an SOP for a forklift. Using... 

Safe or standard operating procedures should be readily accessible to employees who work with or maintain a process or operation. The SOPs should be reviewed as often as necessary to assure that they reflect current operating practice, including changes that result fiom changes in the process or procedures due to new understanding or requirements of technology, equipment, and facilities. 

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