Importance of Procedures

Accurate, up-to-date, well-written, and reliably used procedures are an integral part of safe operation, risk management, and continuous improvement (Bovair and Kieras, 1984).

A number of significant incidents have occurred due to procedural breakdown (Roth, Mumaw, and Lewis, 1994).

Inaccurate, out-of-date, poorly-written, or inconsistently used procedures can lead to performance issues which can result in (CCPS, 1996):

• Personnel injuries
• Property damage
• Product and/or revenue loss
• Unplanned shutdowns
• Start-up failures

As a result, writer’s guides need to be used within organizations to standardize the writing styles and information contained within the procedures.