Release record
- Gates passed: completeness 53.3%.
- Resolved at release: 0 done, 0 refreshed.
SOP Intelligence
Publish a versioned, official release
People work from whichever copy they happen to find, and nobody can say which version was in force on a given day.
Demonstration: Pinecrest Foods plc (fictional) · Food manufacturing. Fictional data and a scripted answer.
The situation
- Organisation
- Pinecrest Foods plc (fictional)
- Who is asking
- Quality manager
- Industry
- Food manufacturing
- What happened
- Version 4 of the allergen changeover procedure is approved and due to replace version 3 on Monday.
The question asked
Is everything in place to publish this version, and what is not?
What it reads, and who can see the result
- Publication checklist registerThe company's gates for a release.
- Approval record registerWho approved which version.
- Reads
- The approval record, training assignments and the QR placement plan.
- Does not read
- Other procedures.
- Permission
- Quality team's access.
- Who sees it
- The quality manager and the production managers.
Try it
Resolve what is missing or out of date. Evidence counts only when it is attached, or when its owner confirms it is current; the sign-off needs the stated completeness.
53.3% complete · 100% needed
Approval
- Version 4 approved by the quality manager PresentApproval recorded on 12 Oct
- Safety-critical steps confirmed by a second person PresentTwo confirmations on record
People
- Retraining assigned to everyone on the changeover rota StaleAssignments created for version 3's rota; two people have joined since
Place of work
- QR labels on the three lines point to the latest version MissingLabels on lines 1 and 2 only
- Paper copies of version 3 removed MissingNo removal recorded
Record
- Version 3 retained as superseded, not deleted PresentRetained in the history
The answer
Simulated answer. Written for this fictional case, not produced by a live model. Only the figures in it are computed, from what you decided above.
Publication readiness is 53.3%; the gate needs 100%.
Approval and the record are in order [S1][S2]. What is not ready is the place of work and the people: the retraining list is out of date, one line lacks its QR label and old paper copies are still around.
Publishing a procedure without the people and the place of work ready is how two versions end up in use. 3 remain open (Retraining assigned to everyone on the changeover rota; QR labels on the three lines point to the latest version; Paper copies of version 3 removed).
Relies on: S1 · Approval record, version 4S2 · Publication gates
Review and approval
The quality manager decides. Approving releases version 4 as the official version and supersedes version 3. It does not delete version 3, which stays on record.
Not ready to approve. Evidence is 53.3% complete; the sign-off needs 100%.
In the product this is a different person with the right permission. Here you play that role to see the rule.
What it produces
Limits of this example
- The checklist records readiness; it cannot make the labels appear on the wall.
- A superseded version is kept for audit, never presented as current.
- This is a scripted demonstration on fictional data. No model was called and no real organisation, person or result is shown.
More in SOP Intelligence
- Capture how work is really doneThe most valuable knowledge in an organisation sits in the heads of a few people, in old recordings, in scattered documents.
- Create a procedure from the sourceWriting a clear, complete procedure from scratch is slow, and the written version often differs from what people actually do.
- Review and approve, as peopleA procedure that nobody accountable has approved is a liability, however well it reads.
- Put the procedure where the work happensA procedure in a folder nobody opens does not change how work is done.
- Work in the language people think inA procedure that is only in one language is not read by everyone who needs it, and a careless translation can change its meaning.
- Ask questions of the approved proceduresPeople ask colleagues instead of reading, because finding the answer in a procedure is slow, and the colleague may be wrong.
The SOP Intelligence story · This capability in the full register