One advice that my manager told me when dealing with a complete rewrite of an SOP or creating and SOP is to make it “idiot proof”. This terminology is used to make it clear that whatever is being stated in a procedure should:
1. Be clear: Nothing should be left for assumptions or questioning.
2. Be Concise: Get to the point, remove any detail which doesn’t add to whatever is already being stated.
A great way to test if your SOP is good quality is to have a production employee read it and have them tell you what they interpreted. If they are overwhelmed with details, then you know unnecessary information was included which resulted in confusion. If they ask you questions about the document, then you know you need to be clearer. A senior engineer told me, pictures are more receptive than words. Therefore, include pictures that label critical positions of a fixture so that someone picking up the SOP can visualize what the procedure is referencing to.