Quick Tip

How should we verify a process is performed correctly?

It's the everyday situations that crop up during manufacturing that can pose the hardest challenges to crack. Consider the case of an employee who steps out of the room midway through a process, to take a phone call say. Can he still verify that the process was done correctly when he returns?

When someone verifies that an activity was performed in accordance with SOPs, they are saying: I know how this process was carried out and I know it was done according to our SOPs. That's 'know,' not 'believe,' not 'feel certain about,' not 'can't imagine it wasn't.' It means he knows.

So in our example, assume a technician is weighing out materials. He weighs it and makes a note of that weight in the record. Now he asks his colleague to verify that. If the coworker did not witness the weighing, he cannot verify it.

He may believe it was weighed correctly. He may trust that it was weighed correctly. He might even bet his life it was weighed correctly. But he cannot verify it. It can be difficult to refuse to help out a coworker, but employees need to be trained on exactly what their signature means when they verify something and how to politely stick to the requirements.

For more training on helping employees do the right thing, see our Right the First Time training program.