Importance of SOP for Organization’s Growth & Sustainability

Standard operating procedures are directives in succession which behaves as protocol for employee work processes. SOPs are based on the inputs by the employees and are always designed completely and clearly. SOPs can be steps in numbering or as flow charts.

Well-defined SOPs help the organization in the following ways:

Readiness for Future Growth

If the organization’s goals are to expand the business to outnumbered branch offices, designed SOPs will make the work processes handy. Fresh talent at new branches can increase the organization’s reputation by using the SOPs to mirror the products and services provided at the Head Office.

Standard Operating Procedures Simplify Performance Management

Senior Employees can always use the SOPs to measure the performance of the employees. Employees whowork in conformity with the SOPs will surely know the expectation of the organization, and shall plan accordingly to meet the goals.

When every employee follows the same process, it becomes easy to measure their performance. Performance can be adequately assessed, where best performing employees are awarded and least performing employees shall be trained or put on probation.

Control the Quality and Consistency of Your Product

Standard Operating Procedures will help the organization to maintain a high standard of quality, guide the employees and reduce the feasibility of forgotten procedures or other processes which influences the quality of final product.

Protect Yourself from Knowledge Loss

The StandardOperating Procedures of the organization should be a manual and not memorized by a senior member, as the loss of the employee could be adverse. Documentation of SOPs bears the employee attrition due to retirement, termination or resignation. It becomes hard to change trained and professional employees, but extensive SOPs makes sure that processes always brace with business.

Increased Productivity

The employees following the SOPs and understanding what is expected from them are more productive and achieve the best performance, saving the retraining time and reminding them what tasks need to be performed daily.

Allocating tasks becomes easy

Well written SOPs shall include the organization chart of the organization and details of each employee. If there is a necessity to authorize a task, KRAs designed in the SOP will make it clear and straight to assign the task.

Reduced learning curve/training time for new employees

Whenever an employee has recently joined the job, the Standard Operating Procedures will be an aid to understand how things will work. For example, if the manager asks the employee to make the arrangements for a visit to attend a workshop in some other city, the new employee can easily review the SOP and make arrangement accordingly. This helps in saving a lot of time and boosts the confidence of the employee.

Standardized processes

The Standard Operating Procedures eases to find which policies and procedures are needed to handle the repetitive cases.

Training Material

The Standard Operating Procedures are advantageous for the organization for developing the training material which shall help the new employees to climb the learning curve fast. That SOP document shall work as manual for training which will cover the key responsible areas and the processes to follow. 

Audit

SOP shall provide an efficient audit list which will cover all the operating, service and all other quality standards which will demolish the “I don’t know” answers as everything will be covered in the audit report & every audit score will give us a report card of the respective department.

SOPs create a more secure workplace.

No matter whatever the business might be, accidents can always take place. Business owners whether small or big, and employees never want this to happen. Standard Operating Procedures will reduce these type of accidents because the employees will know how to use the equipment.

About YRC: YRC is a Management Consulting Firm with its presence across India & Dubai.

We help our clients build robust management systems which shall help to reduce their involvement in daily operations. We act as “Growth Partners” to our clients and help our clients grow in an organised manner. We have served more than 100 brands till date and are associated with 85% of them.

Article Source: https://medium.com/@tweet_yrc/importance-of-sop-for-organizations-growth-sustainability-e0c9e67ea28d

WHY YOUR STOCK MANAGEMENT SHOULD BE SOFTWARE BASED??

When you're a product-based company, your stock is the heart of your business. Are we really working hard on maintaining our heart healthy? Are the stock levels controlled? Are you aware of your suppliers whose stock is slow moving? What is the % of your dead stock? How many customers have you lost due to non-availability of the fast moving stocks? We discuss on strategies to increase sales, what about reducing our

Here are a few reasons why stockmanagement software is crucial for retailers:

1. Maximize scalability

Developing a scalable business model relies heavily on the systems you've implemented. Manually entering stock in excel sheet documents is not scalable. Emailing and calling your employees to figure out how much stock you have on hand is also not scalable. Spending any extra spare hour you have analyzing data from multiple locations is most certainly not scalable for business nor your personal well-being. And as your order volume grows, all of these stale "systems" you're running today will break. If you want to scale your business, taking the time today to move to automated systems will enable you to gather information faster and make smarter decisions for the future.

2. Decrease human error

Manual entry of stock in excel can often open opportunities for human error, leading to overselling or underselling. Whether there’s one or 20 people on your team, it’s important to make sure everyone is using the same calculations. Think about how many times you've recounted stock.

3. Save time

With automated stock tracking and reporting, you'll save hours of manual entry. Automated stock management and reporting, helps you save time and enables you to gain accuracy about your stock position.

We must consider Stock Management Software as a tool for growth.

YRC is a Management Consulting Company with head office in Pune, India. We work across 03 verticals, Startup, SME & Corporates. Our expertise lies in developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for companies and helping them organize and expand. We have a cumulative experience of more than 15 years. Our holistic approach helps us to devise the best of the management practices for the organization.

How to write Standard Operating Procedures for an Apparel Brand?

SOPs or Standard Operating Procedures have become an integral part of modern day business management. SOPs are documented step-by-step instructions meant to serve as a procedural roadmap for the employees to execute different operational activities involved in various business processes of an organization. Properly drafted SOPs can prove to be very instrumental for businesses in establishing the standards of performance and output and have better control over the flow of work.

In this article, we’ll try to highlight some of the basic steps involved in writing SOPs for an apparel showroom.

Identification of the business processes

The first basic step involved is to identify the business processes. One simple way to do this is to identify the main functions of an apparel showroom as a business enterprise. For an apparel showroom, some of the essential business processes are inventory management, merchandising, staff management, CRM etc. A broader perspective is depicted with the help of the diagram below. Each of these processes plays a definite and an indispensable role in the smooth operation of the showroom and better the planning and execution of these business processes are,

The better will be the prospects of the apparel showroom achieving its business goals which may include higher customer footfall and conversion rate, higher sales and revenue, customer delight and satisfaction etc.

Example of various business processes in a multi-branded apparel showroom

Identification of the operations involved in each process

Every business process further comprises of certain key operations. Taking the example of merchandising process, it may constitute of operations like design and display planning (fixtures, fittings, and space), stock management, staff training, customer service, sales and marketing activities etc. Again, without proper planning and execution of these operations involved in a merchandising process, a retail showroom/store is unlikely to achieve its merchandising objectives.

Merchandising is the silent and visual sales agent of a retail showroom/store the aim of which should be to consistently provide a favorable and interesting shopping environment to its customers to generate higher sales, increased profitability and customer delight.

Identification of the operational activities

Every operation in a business process is executed through a series of operational activities and tasks in a logical, step-by-step manner. For example, the goal of stock management operation in the merchandising process of an apparel showroom is ideally to ensure that adequate and necessary stock is consistently available in the showroom in tune with the sales projections, marketing objectives and parameters of design and display.

In order to achieve this, the stock management operation will involve four critical activities/tasks taking inputs from sales and marketing analysis, guidelines for design and display, assessment of the availability of the necessary space and display conditions in the showroom and requisite coordination with the inventory process.

These operational activities and tasks constitute the building blocks of SOPs.

Manpower Allocation

After establishing and defining the operational activities and tasks, the next step is to determine which roles/positions from the organization structure will be carrying out these tasks and activities.

This will help in assigning authority, responsibility, and accountability to different roles/positions for different operational activities and tasks. Necessary training could also be imparted to the incumbent employees based on their assigned duties and responsibilities derived from what operational activities and tasks they would be performing in the organization.

Selection of format

Once the operational activities and tasks are identified and arranged in the desired sequence and manpower allocation is finalized, the next step is the selection of a standard format to represent the flow/cycle of work.

A flowchart format is ideal to present a bird’s eye view of an entire operation. However, in addition to a flowchart, using a procedural form can prove to be more useful. A basic example of a procedural form for stock management operation in a merchandising process is depicted below.

Besides lending better control over the operational activities and establishing standards of performance and output at the micro-level, SOPs can also prove to be instrumental for an apparel showroom in controlling its carrying costs, increasing its inventory turnover, building a professional work culture and resource optimization. In the backdrop of rising competition from online retail players and increasing dominance of global and domestic retail giants in the apparel industry, achieving business process excellence has become essential for apparel showrooms operating in the SME space.

Disclaimer: The above content/article is intended only to provide a general overview and is not to be used as a basis for the exercise of any business, professional or investment judgment/action.

Source from: http://www.yourretailcoach.in/blog/how-to-write-standard-operating-procedures-for-an-apparel-brand/

SOPs

Have you validated your SOPs periodically?

SOPs are an immensely powerful tool used by companies, business enterprises and various other organizations of all sizes and operations across different industries and sectors. These SOPs are written step by step instructions to primarily help the employees in the execution of the routine activities of an organization. Strict adherence to SOPs helps an organization achieve control over and maintain desired standards of performances across operations, processes and functions. Having SOPs also helps bring speed and accuracy in day-to-day operational decision making. However, SOPs are not a fit-and-forget program which will keep yielding the expected results without proactive and thoughtful interventions from time to time. This brings us to our central theme of SOP validation in organizations.

What is SOP Validation?

SOP validation is a scientific and systematic study and analysis of the series of activities in a process or an operation leading to the desired outcome under a given environment. SOP validation involves three elements – activities, outcome and environment. In other words, SOP validation establishes the strength of the relationship between the activities involved in a process and the desired outcome. If this relationship is poor, the probability of achieving the desired outcome through the defined activities will also be poor. A strong relationship between activities and outcome indicates that effective SOPs are in place. The core objective of SOP validation is to improve the standardization and effectiveness of the SOPs.

Why SOP validation?

As stated above, design and implementation of SOPs are not a one time activity. These Standard Operating Procedures have to be revisited, revised and re-adjusted so that it remains updated, effective and competitive. In the light of the changing business environment like changes in operational standards or changes in technologies, SOP validation becomes a quintessential activity of an organization.

1.    Limiting the chances of mistakes and errors

Validation enhances the effectiveness of SOPs. With more and more enhanced SOPs in place and with proper training of employees, companies work on reducing human errors in their operational activities to a considerable extent. With the availability of defined and refined instructions, the chances of going wrong to get thinner and employees can act more responsibly and with higher accountability in performing their operational duties.

2.    Maintain high standards of performance

With improved and validated SOPs, organizations can incorporate more stringent and more effective operational and quality standards like Six Sigma and CMM and best practices of the industry. SOP validation can pave the way for a company to introduce higher standards of operations which can make them more competitive in the industry. Validated SOPs also help a company in improving the quality of products and enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of its services.

3.    Better control

After SOP validation, the operational procedures are in greater alignment with the organizational goals as well as the functional objectives. With a more accurate definition of activities and processes, companies can exercise better control of the direction of its operations by focusing on micro-details (which is necessary in case of manufacturing processes) and also introduce specific changes in a process without causing disruption to the entire flow of work.

4.    Better coordination with suppliers and vendors

A company has to deal with several stakeholders like suppliers, vendors, facilities management firms, etc. and each one of them comes with their own set of operational requirements and formalities. Coordinating with third parties often causes disruption to work in an organization because most of the time it remains unaccounted for in work schedules. With SOP validation, these third party requirements can be taken into consideration and incorporated in the SOPs so that these do not act as a distraction from routine work.

5.    Employee retention, motivation and morale

No productive employee would prefer to work in an outdated work environment or follow inferior processes and guidelines. With SOP validation, companies get an opportunity to assess their existing operational procedures in the light of the best practices and globally recognized operational standards. After identifying the areas of improvement, companies can take the necessary decisions in improving the standards of their SOPs. By operating on standards of high repute in procedures and processes, a company can attract and retain high performers.

6.    Improved speed and accuracy in operations

SOPs can be effective and still have flaws. SOP validation weeds out the faults or fine tunes the procedure and process definitions. With improved definition of procedures, employees can be more specific and selective in using their skills and identifying the resources required to complete an activity. When an entire organization begins to work with a new set of validated SOPs, it can result in significant improvements in operational speed and accuracy.

7.    Higher automation

 As a business begins to grow in size and operations, it needs to introduce improved technologies which also include higher levels of automation. For so many reasons, technology can take charge of several operations and improve operator speed and accuracy in an organization. SOP validation can help a business figure out the areas of operations which can be automated or where the level of automation can be increased. Cashless payment in stores is the biggest example here.

8.    ERP integration

An organization will not be able to extract the most out of their ERP applications if the SOPs do not integrate with the ERP platform. SOP validation gives an opportunity to organizations to address two needs at one go – improvement of SOPs and the integration of validated SOPs with the ERP modules.

Conclusion

SOP validation is as important as having SOPs. There’s no point in retaining SOPs which are outdated or do not reflect the needs and standards of modern day business operations. With validated SOPs, an organization can experience significant improvements in its internal operations. The advantages of validated SOPs extend beyond the organization to positively impact services rendered to customers and coordination with outside partners like suppliers and distributors. Validated Standard Operating Procedures keeps the stage set for an organization to adopt new technologies, introduce effective change management and launch growth and expansion plans.