While progress has been made, risk averse industries continue to experience incidents, up to 70% of which are attributed to human error with procedures as a contributing cause.

While progress has been made, risk averse industries continue to experience incidents, up to 70% of which are attributed to human error with procedures as a contributing cause.

Traditional Procedures aren't Working

For ages, procedures have been written using a standard word processor (e.g. MS Word) and managed using some form of document management system (e.g. SharePoint or Documentum). Yet companies continue to struggle with operational performance and compliance.

Touch the colored areas of the charts below to see what industry personnel claim are the most challenging aspects of traditional procedures:

 

Writers Tell Us:

Procedure Writers are struggling to develop and manage high quality Procedures.

Workers Tell Us:

Inadequate and inaccessible Procedures are challenging Workers to perform the task safely and correctly every time.

Managers Tell Us:

Management wants Procedures to be a tool that ensures reliability and compliance.
 

The Problem With MS Word

When managing procedures in the traditional word processor and document management environment, procedure writers can only deliver in one output (What you see is what you get).  

Stuck in one format, and stuck in paper... 

But workers are diverse, their tasks are diverse, so their procedures shouldn't be one-size-fits-all.

Top 8 Headaches

  • Difficult to update multiple documents
  • Limited use of media
  • Can't deploy smartly to mobile devices
  • Time wasted formatting documents
  • Difficult to accurately find information
  • Table of Contents crashing
  • Inefficient to manage boilerplate content
  • Difficult to manage reviews
 

Free the Data - Step Properties

 The SmartProcedures editor tool is database driven, meaning that each procedure step is a unique entity in the system.  This allows authors to associate more information to the step - enabling a world of procedure functionality not seen in traditional procedures. Some examples of step properties:

  • Role (who performs this step)
  • Type of step
  • Equipment information
  • Sign-off requirements
  • Pictures and Media
  • Competency assessment questions
  • User defined properties
 
 
 
SmartProcedures by ATR Inc. is the gold standard  in procedure lifecycle management. 

SmartProcedures by ATR Inc. is the gold standard  in procedure lifecycle management. 

“SmartProcedures solves all of the problems - both known and unknown - with managing procedures. ”
— PetroChem Refinery Operations Manager
 

SOLVING THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN PROCEDURE MANAGEMENT

Typical effort required for a simple update of the company logo across 5000 procedures.

Typical effort required for a simple update of the company logo across 5000 procedures.

Your facility has thousands of Operating and Maintenance procedures. None of which are written in stone. Using traditional procedure means, when a change to procedure format or content impacts multiple procedures, writers must identify, update, and process all impacted documents individually. This is the most time consuming, costly, and error likely procedure management task. 

See How Global Changes Works!

“In SmartProcedures, we’re able to update critical equipment operating limits across hundreds of procedures before the end of the workday.”
— Oil Refinery Procedure Supervisor
Typical internal cost incurred for a simple update of the company logo across 5000 procedures.

Typical internal cost incurred for a simple update of the company logo across 5000 procedures.

Using Global Changes in SmartProcedures, updates to:

  • equipment
  • setpoints
  • operating limits
  • regulatory info
  • any common standardized information

are made accurately and efficiently. SmartProcedures reports exactly what procedures are impacted and provides options for processing the revisions automatically.

The Smart Way to Manage equipment info and operating limits in procedures

“The time and dollar savings realized from Global Changes more than pays for SmartProcedures. ROI business case done!”
— Nate Rightmer, VP Procedure Services - ATR

The Procedure Writer's Virtual Assistant

The best procedures have high quality, consistent, human factored content. This requires procedure writers to remember and effectively enforce hundreds of best practice writing rules. Simply relying on human Editors to proofread draft procedures is costly and error prone.  

Step Analyzer Module (SAM) automatically proofreads every step of the draft procedure against all defined writing rules and produces a risk-ranked quality report to the writer.

Good Writers Become Great Writers

SAM enables organizations to develop higher quality procedures, consistent, and compliant with writing standards for a fraction of the cost compared to traditional means. Writers can focus on step content accuracy, level of detail, and sequence while letting SAM do all the cleanup - in seconds!

 

What you need is what you get

See How FlexViews Work!

Since information in SmartProcedures "alive and aware" with step properties, SmartProcedures FlexViews deploys each procedure in a variety of ways to meet the diverse needs of workers.  Flexviews directly solves the most challenging variations in the workforce such as:

  • Differences in Experience
  • Different Languages
  • Differences in layout preference
  • Different Roles in the Task
  • Different use cases of the information
 
 

FlexViews Use Case

 A Chiller Unit Startup procedure has steps for an Operator, a Maintenance Technician, an Engineer, and a Supervisor.  This facility also recently hired new Maintenance Technicians that will be supporting the Chiller Unit Startup.  

SmartProcedures seamlessly deploys:

  • multiple performance mode layouts (FlexViews) of the procedure to support the different workers assigned to the job
  • interactive Computer Based Training (CBT) for the new Maintenance Technicians to prepare for the job
  • a streamlined supervisory view of the task for the Supervisor

- all from just one procedure developed using the SmartProcedure editor.

 

See why our clients trust SmartProcedures

 

Request a live demo of SmartProcedures. We'll show you how procedures should be managed.

Watch a recorded webinar

See how traditional procedure management practices are limiting performance and learn how SmartProcedures  is ushering the Next Generation of Procedures.