Review record
- 0 steps accepted, 0 rejected, 0 escalated.
- Each decision is recorded with the reviewer and the step.
SOP Intelligence
Review and approve, as people
A procedure that nobody accountable has approved is a liability, however well it reads.
Demonstration: Brightwater Chemicals (fictional) · Chemical processing. Fictional data and a scripted answer.
The situation
- Organisation
- Brightwater Chemicals (fictional)
- Who is asking
- Production supervisor reviewing a draft
- Industry
- Chemical processing
- What happened
- A drafted decanting procedure has reached the supervisor, who must approve it or send it back with reasons.
The question asked
Which steps of this draft need my decision, and which can I not simply accept?
What it reads, and who can see the result
- Draft procedure with markers documentSteps with the draft's own confidence and safety markers.
- Reads
- The draft and its markers.
- Does not read
- Other drafts.
- Permission
- The supervisor has the reviewer role for this area.
- Who sees it
- The supervisor and the safety adviser.
Try it
Read each highlighted clause and accept it, reject it, or send it to counsel. A clause the analysis is unsure how to read cannot simply be accepted.
Draft procedure D-77: decanting solvent · 6 clauses read, 4 highlighted
1Confirm the receiving container is labelled and empty.
2Connect the earthing clip to the drum before opening it.
high risk Safety-critical Reading clear
Safety-critical step: a person must confirm it
Obligation: Operator earths the drum (before opening)
3Pour slowly until the container is about three-quarters full.
medium risk Quantity Reading uncertain
'About three-quarters' is not a measurable limit
4Ventilate the area as required.
high risk Ventilation Reading uncertain
No stated ventilation rate; the site rules require one
5Record the quantity decanted in the batch log.
6Seal and label the drum and return it to the flammables store.
medium risk Storage Reading clear
Return location named differently from the site rules
- Accepted
- 0 (0 obligations)
- Rejected
- 0
- With counsel
- 0
- Undecided
- 4
The answer
Simulated answer. Written for this fictional case, not produced by a live model. Only the figures in it are computed, from what you decided above.
4 steps need a decision; you have accepted 0, rejected 0 and sent 0 to the safety adviser.
The review is where the draft becomes the company's procedure, so a person decides each highlighted step [S1][S2]. Two steps cannot simply be accepted because the draft itself marks them uncertain: the fill limit and the ventilation requirement.
The earthing step is safety-critical and clear, so you can accept it, but acceptance is recorded as your decision. Accepted obligations: 0.
Relies on: S1 · Draft procedure D-77S2 · Site safety rules
Review and approval
The production supervisor, with the safety adviser for escalated steps decides. Approving sends the reviewed draft on with your decisions recorded and the escalated steps flagged. It does not publish the procedure.
Not ready to approve. 4 highlighted clauses are still undecided. Accept, reject or send each to counsel first.
In the product this is a different person with the right permission. Here you play that role to see the rule.
What it produces
Limits of this example
- A review record shows who decided, not whether they were right.
- A safety adviser's decision is outside this page.
- This is a scripted demonstration on fictional data. No model was called and no real organisation, person or result is shown.
More in SOP Intelligence
- Capture how work is really doneThe most valuable knowledge in an organisation sits in the heads of a few people, in old recordings, in scattered documents.
- Create a procedure from the sourceWriting a clear, complete procedure from scratch is slow, and the written version often differs from what people actually do.
- Publish a versioned, official releasePeople work from whichever copy they happen to find, and nobody can say which version was in force on a given day.
- Put the procedure where the work happensA procedure in a folder nobody opens does not change how work is done.
- Work in the language people think inA procedure that is only in one language is not read by everyone who needs it, and a careless translation can change its meaning.
- Ask questions of the approved proceduresPeople ask colleagues instead of reading, because finding the answer in a procedure is slow, and the colleague may be wrong.
The SOP Intelligence story · This capability in the full register