A direct-to-consumer brand is in need of an Operations Manual that covers its E-Commerce activities to standardize its processes and speed up the scaling-up phase of the company.
What I Did
Performed interviews with key stakeholders and employees of the company to learn more about the whole business process to make sure all activities will be documented
Created, reviewed, and revised SOP's and Work Instructions of the company, prior to the creation of the manual
Created, reviewed, and revised the Operations Manual
Uploaded it to Notion for easier viewing for all employees
Created SOP's as checklists on ClickUp
Remarks: Images are not available due to confidentiality.
1. Ensuring all processes are documented
All processes were identified and standard operating procedures were created to document them. A sample of this whole process from creation to implementation can be seen here.
2. Creating the Operations Manual
The Operations Manual aims to explain how a company works and it gets things done. Different activities are involved per department.
For this project, the Operations Manual encompasses the processes done by the following departments:
Marketing
Sales
Human Resources
Operations
Finance
Supply Chain
New Business
IT and Tech Support
Customer Service
This ensures that all the processes that are vital in achieving business goals are documented and whoever is responsible for getting them done is identified.
The contents of the Operations Manual are as follows:
Introduction
Purpose
Amendments and Revision History
General Information About The Company
Definition of Terms and Acronyms
Organization and Responsibilities
Operational Control and Supervision
Company Organizational Chart
Standard Operating Procedures
Control of Records and Documents
Appendices
3. Reviewing the Operations Manual
Once the Operations Manual has been created, the draft copy is then routed among the team members for their review. Grammatical and technical errors are noted.
Revisions and notes are then applied prior to seeking approval from the key stakeholders.
4. Approving the Operations Manual
Once no error is found on the Operations Manual, it is routed to all departments of the company for approval.
5. Distributing the Operations Manual
The controlled Operations Manual is kept by the Document Controller. Duplicates were created and were distributed to all departments of the company.
6. Uploading the Operations Manual on Notion
In order to ensure that all team members have access to the Operations Manual, at all times, it is uploaded on Notion.
This served as their go-to for technical questions. What is expected among employees is also clarified and point-of-contact for certain activities is easily identified making collaboration between departments easier.
7. Scheduling an Operations Manual Audit
A review date was nominated to ensure that SOP will remain up to date and relevant.