Too many teams I've seen treat SOPs like an afterthought

I sat in on a meeting last week where a warehouse team spent 20 minutes arguing about how to label returned boxes. Nobody had written it down anywhere. Three different people had their own system, and the new hire just got confused. We spent the rest of the afternoon creating a simple checklist that took 10 minutes to write. Has anyone else dealt with this kind of friction because the basics weren't written out?

2 comments

2 Comments

troy_sanchez81mo ago

Nah, sometimes overthinking the basics just slows people down more.

alice_harris351mo ago

Oh man, I just read a thing last week about how Toyota basically built their whole system on writing down every tiny step lol. Apparently they call it "standardized work" and they treat it like the foundation of everything. If they can write down how to tighten a bolt the same way every time, we can probably handle how to label a box haha. That 20 minute argument would've been over in 30 seconds if someone had just printed out a one page guide and taped it to the wall. The new hire situation is the real kicker though. You're basically forcing them to learn by osmosis or by asking the grumpiest person on shift.