STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES: Business A …

1 DairyFarmBusinessCOLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCESAGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ANDCOOPERATIVE EXTENSIONSTANDARDOPERATINGPROCEDURES:A Writing Guide2 INTRODUCTION: DRIVING TOWARD THE SAME GOALSA successful dairy farm Business needs committed workerswho complete work procedures consistently and also requires all involved to contribute their experience,knowledge, and ideas to constant improvement for thefuture. This publication describes how dairy businesses canuse STANDARD OPERATING procedures to get everyone drivingtoward outstanding performance and people naturally want to do a good job. Successfulmanagers recognize this fact and seek to channel workers efforts in ways that will benefit the Business .

2 Well-writtenstandard OPERATING procedures (SOPs) provide direction,improve communication, reduce training time, andimprove work consistency. The SOP development processis an excellent way for managers, workers, and technicaladvisers to cooperate for everyone s benefit. A very positivesense of teamwork arises when these parties work togethertoward common OPERATING procedures used in combinationwith planned training and regular performance feedbacklead to an effective and motivated workforce. Dairy manag-ers and advisers benefit from consistent work performanceand predictable results. Workers benefit from increasedconfidence and a clear sense of SYSTEMS, procedures , AND STEPSP roducing a high-quality product at a profit depends onthe consistent operation of all systems within the dairy.

3 Thebasic systems shared by all dairy farm businesses are a milkharvesting system, an animal feeding system, and a wastemanagement system (see Figure 1). Dairy farm successdepends on how well these systems work together toproduce large volumes of high-quality milk to systems are made up of work example, on most farms, milking consists of more thanjust cleaning and stimulating cows and attaching milkingunits to them. Before milking can begin, someone mustprepare the milking equipment system, usually by sanitiz-ing and changing the configuration from wash mode tomilking mode. After all cows are milked, someone mustchange the equipment back to wash mode and clean thesystem.

4 Each of these three activities sanitizing andpreparing to milk, milking, and cleanup are examples ofprocedures that when put together make up the milkingmanagement Introduction: Driving Toward the Same Goals .. 22. Defining Systems, procedures , and Steps .. 23. Formats for STANDARD OPERATING procedures .. 34. Developing and Implementing the SOP .. 65. Effective Writing .. 76. Level of Detail .. 97. Conclusion .. 9 FIGURE 1. SYSTEMS AND HandlingMilking1. Sanitizing and preparing equipment2. Milking3. Cleanup3 Finally, steps are the smaller actions that when puttogether form a procedure. Figure 2 is a basic standardoperating procedure for prepping cows, attaching milkingunits, and post-dipping in a double-12 parlor.

5 Notice thatthe procedure is made up of a series of small steps. Thesmall steps are where variation among different workerstakes place if procedures are not standardized. Managerscan use STANDARD OPERATING procedures to help ensureeveryone performs each procedure the same way FOR STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURESWhen writing STANDARD OPERATING procedures , managerscan choose a number of different ways to organize andformat them. Your goal is to create a document that is easyfor the reader to understand and helpful for the work factors determine what type of SOP to use (Figure3). First, how many decisions will the user need to makeduring the procedure?

6 Second, how many steps andsubsteps are in the procedure? Routine procedures thatare short and require few decisions can be written usingthe simple steps format. Long procedures consisting ofmore than ten steps, with few decisions, should be writtenin hierarchical steps format or in a graphic format. Proce-dures that require many decisions should be written in theform of a StepsGenerally, a milking procedure is very repetitive andrequires few decisions. In this case, a simple set of stepslike those in Figure 2 is sufficient. The SOP in Figure 2does not contain much detail. A thorough training pro-gram would be necessary to make sure that new milkersunderstand how to perform each step in the , this low level of detail still leaves a lot ofroom for milkers to interpret the procedure.

7 This SOPcould work in a situation where only a few people StepsA dairy striving for very consistent work should use a moredetailed and precise format for most SOPs. The hierarchi-cal steps format (see Figure 4) allows the use of easy-to-read steps for experienced users while including moredetailed substeps as well. Experienced users may only referto the substeps when they need to, while beginners will usethe detailed substeps to help them learn the ProceduresWhen writing procedures for very long activities, managersshould consider using a graphic format. The graphicformat breaks long processes into shorter subprocesses thatconsist of only a few steps.

8 Workers can learn several shortsubprocesses more easily that one long procedure. Figure 5illustrates the graphic procedure possibility for the graphic format is to usephotographs and diagrams to illustrate the producers and most of their advisers have access tocomputers with powerful graphic capabilities. Digitalcameras are now relatively inexpensive and simple tooperate. Use these tools to design creative SOPs thatcombine helpful pictures with explanatory text. Picturestruly are worth a thousand words, and they are helpfulregardless of the literacy level or native language of 2. SAMPLE SIMPLE STEPS OPERATINGPROCEDURE Farms Parlor SOP #1, Basic Milking ProcedureEffective Date: Oct.

9 1, 1999 Developed by Parlor Staff1. Dry-wipe dirt and debris from the first cow s Predip all four teats with the green dip Strip two squirts of milk from each teat and observe forabnormal milk. If any abnormal milk is found, refer to ParlorSOP #2, Dealing With Cows Showing Abnormal Milk. 4. Repeat steps 1, 2, and 3 with the second and third cows on thesame Return to the first cow and thoroughly wipe with a clean Attach unit to first cow and Repeat steps 5 and 6 with the second and third cows in Begin at step 1 with the fourth cow on the side and repeatprocedure with each group of 3 cows until all 12 units When all units have detached, postdip all cows and 3.

10 STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDUREFORMAT CHOICES AND thanBest SOPdecisions?10 steps?formatNoNoSimple StepsNoYesHierarchicalor GraphicYesNoFlowchartYesYesFlowchart4 FIGURE 4. SAMPLE HIERARCHICAL STEPS OPERATING PROCEDURE 5. SAMPLE GRAPHIC OPERATING PROCEDURE Farms Feeding SOP #1, Feeding the Lactating CowsEffective Date: October 7, 2000 Developed by Feeding CrewPrepare FeedbunkLoad MixerMix FeedDistribute Feed1. Sweep feed refusals1. Check feeder1. Mix feed for exactly1. Distribute feedto end of feed for amount offive along2. Scoop feed refusalsingredients to Do not move tractorentire length ofinto TMR Add proteinwhile mixer is Record weight of feedconcentrate from bin # Record total amount of2.