SSOW, SOP's, Method Statements, Work Instructions, Safety Procedures etc.

[Danger_Daz]

Hi all,

I know this subject has been covered many times before, but the more I look in to it the more confused I become. I'm hoping the experts on these forums might be able to point me in the right direction.

I've recently changed from a company where SOP's were the norm. These detailed a whole process broken down into each step describing the action, highlighting any hazards and normally accompanied with a picture for each part of the process as a visual reference.

My current employer however has completely confused me as they are using either a Method Statement, SSOW or SWP. To add to this confusion they sometimes use a combination of all 3 but the information tends to just repeated from one form to another which just seems like a massive waste of time and duplication of work.

I've looked online to identify what the actual differences are between these various systems/procedures, what information they should contain and what type should be used and when but there seems to be many disagreements about this subject on various forums and just to add to the mix I've now discovered that there are also JSI's and work instructions!

So, finally to my question...

Are SSOW, SOP's, SWP'S, Method Statements, JSI's and work instructions all the same thing? And if not what actually is the difference between them and what information should each of them contain?

Thanks

[bernicarey]

Simple answer is that all those terms can mean different things to different people, yet they can all be essentially the same thing.

As highlighted by yourself....

To add to this confusion they sometimes use a combination of all 3 but the information tends to just repeated from one form to another which just seems like a massive waste of time and duplication of work.

Whether you call it a ...
Safe System Of Work
Standard Operating Procedure
Method Statement
Work Instruction
Safe Working Practice

etc, etc,.

The bottom line is that where needed, there has to be a documented safe way to carry out a task, following the risk assessment.

Some of the descriptions are often used in one industry more than another. that might be why you now find yourself dealing with different terms.

I'm sure someone will now come in and offer an alternative viewpoint and explain some difference, which is fine, and may well be relevant in their particular circumstances; but the thing is, people use different terms because there is no standard glossary when it comes to these things.

[KellyMac]

Hi.

We call ours SWI (Safe working Instructions) and Method Statements. Generally ours have the same info up to a point and then we add in specific points on how to do the job safely, married with the risk assessment.

Bernicarey is correct.

[joaorosa80]

Do you need instruction to do the job safely? Or instruction to do the job?

[ScottD]

If you have an instruction on how to do the job, you would assume, maybe wrongly, that it will be the safe method. Hopefully the instruction will have been written by a team comprising of relevant personnel.

[stephen1974]

For me a Method Statement could include multiple SSOW so I wouldn't necessarily call them the same, but it oftem depends on the job. The bigger the job the further apart the two could be.

The other issue is that it can feel a bit silly to call certain this a 'safe system of work' when there are no real risks invlved, for example, how to operate a till. So people will call that an NOP/SOP/WP etc

I would be happy with someone just calling everything a work procedure. You will never get in to trouble for not calling it an SSOW or Method Statement.