Chemical Engineering August 2023 - 43

the writing team leaves out certain
things, it could be the beginning of a
serious problem.
A glossary or term list can be very
helpful when the writing team is creating
an SOP. The team members
doing the tasks can use the glossary
to learn more information about specific
items, tasks and concepts.
Including items like steam traps,
FIGURE 3. Shown here is an example of valve numbering for an SOP
Why write an SOP?
The following are ten of the most
important reasons that every steam
or boiler plant (Figure 2) needs to
develop a set of SOPs:
1. Providing plant personnel at
all levels who perform operational
tasks with all the safety, health,
environmental and operational information
required to perform a
job properly
2. Protecting the safety of plant personnel
and plant process applications
3. Ensuring
that operations are
done consistently to maintain the
safe, reliable startup or shutdown of
a boiler or steam system
4. Ensuring
the SOP tasks
are
completed on a prescribed roadmap
throughout the operation, thus leading
to successful task completion
5. Avoiding failures in the system
and related processes that would
cause operational issues
6. Ensuring approved procedures
are followed to comply with ASME
codes, industrial best practices and
standards, and company standards
7. Protecting product quality and
achieving production goals
8. Providing a great training document
for teaching current plant personnel
and new plant personnel
9. Serving as a historical record of
the how, why and when of a task in
a system to use when modifications
are made to that system and when
an SOP must be revised
10. Building a tool that explains the
different steps or tasks in a process
that can be reviewed in postincident
investigations to improve
safety practices and system operating
conditions
How to write an SOP
A good SOP is brief. It should describe
the necessary tasks and steps
in a way that is easy to understand
and implement.
When writing an SOP, remember
the following five points:
Involve the necessary plant personnel.
Writing an SOP should be a
team effort. The writing team needs
to make sure that the right plant
personnel are involved in the SOP
process. At least one team member
must be intimately familiar with the
task outlined in the SOP. That person
will understand exactly what needs
to be done to successfully complete
the task and could have important
insight and suggestions on ways to
improve the SOP. Remember, an
SOP is only helpful if the team members
executing the task can understand
what is written.
Assuming is the wrong approach.
One of the biggest mistakes that the
writing team can make when writing
the SOP is assuming that the
team members executing the tasks
are familiar with each task, its steps,
or even a concept that is not documented
or defined in the SOP. Thinking
that an employee who has been
working with the steam system for
22 years knows how to accomplish
the task correctly and safely is the
wrong approach.
When the team is writing the SOP,
it is better to overinform than to
provide too little information. When
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AUGUST 2023
control valves and safety valve tag
numbers in an SOP allows team
members to ensure the correct component
is being operated (Figure 3).
Pictures, visual images and CAD
prints are helpful. An SOP should
not be a long document that is only
full of text. The writing team will want
an SOP to be informative and concise
above all else. Using pictures,
visual images, CAD prints, and so on
can help create an excellent SOP. Visual
aids back up the SOP text and
make the content more meaningful.
Using imagery can also help make
SOPs more accessible to people.
Some people are visual learners who
process information better from visual
aids than from written material.
It Is critical to test the SOP. The
writing team needs to test an SOP's
steps before making the tasks or
steps any part of an official SOP process.
Walking through the process
of accomplishing a task creates an
easy roadmap for the writing team to
see how things are currently working
and whether anything can be done
to improve things before drafting the
final SOP. The writing team may find
that something everyone assumes is
well known should be documented
in the SOP.
An SOP is never final. The SOP is
a living document. It should continue
to be improved upon and revised to
meet the changing requirements of
the plant operation.
n
Edited by Gerald Ondrey
Author
Kelly Paffel is the technical manager
at steam-engineering firm
Inveno Engineering, LLC (Unit 320,
16215 Marsilea Pl., Naples, FL,
34110; Phone: 239-289-3667;
Website:
Email:
www.invenoeng.com;
kelly.paffel@invenoeng.
com). Paffel has 42 years of experience
in steam and power operations,
and is an experienced lecturer
who has published many technical papers on the
topics of steam system design and operation. He is
known for writing " Steam System Best Practices, " which
are used by plants and engineers globally to ensure
proper operation of steam and condensate systems.
43
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