The Procedure Review and Approval Cycle

Every procedure must be reviewed and approved, as described in Chapters 5 and 7. Each writer should be knowledgeable in the process for reviewing and approving procedures at their site. As determined using the information presented in Chapter 7, technical, safety, environmental and quality review considerations should be established for review and approval. 

Who approves a procedure and what that approval means are important to your procedure system. Typically, the approver puts his or her signature on the document to verify that the procedure has been drafted and reviewed according to the site s system and that the procedure is the standard for performing the task until the next revision. 

Maintenance activities at a site are usually considered crafts, and it can be a new experience for a facihty to ask its maintenance personnel to write and use written procedures. Maintenance procedures require special consideration depending upon the type of maintenance force your site maintains. If your site uses cross-trained maintenance personnel, your fecihty may need maintenance procedures that are written to a very high level of detail. The increased use of contract maintenance personnel at fadhties presents a similar problem. 

Referencing vendor manuals is a choice that maintenance managers can use to keep numbers of procedures manageable, but it imphes another level of document control. If you reference vendor manuals in maintenance procedures, your site must possess these documents and ensure they are accessible, up to date, and accurate. 

Vendor manuals often do not provide the application-specific cautions, warnings and level of detail that your site may need. Vendor manuals are usually written genericaUy in terms of the process apphcation and for generic models of equipment. Your maintenance procedures may need to augment this information in order to reflect your site needs accurately. 

---