Procedure system management

For high hazard, complex work environments such as nuclear power plants and chemical processing facilities, linking personnel with work related knowledge and information has historically been the domain of procedures. Owing to the relative maturity of information and document delivery systems, paper procedures have been the most frequently used procedure medium. With the development of improved technology, significant attention has turned to online procedures as an evolutionary step on the way-perhaps, as some advocate-to "procedureless operation." This technological migration may, in fact, signal a bit of technological misdirection at play. Perceptions of procedures as the last dinosaurs of our past existence mistake what procedures are and why they exist. Procedures represent the medium though which information is transformed into action, the synthesizing of three agents: (1) the cumulative knowledge of an expert-based system; (2) the experience of the workforce; and (3) the influences of local (management) and external (regulatory) communities. To achieve this synthesis a systems approach is needed. This paper describes such an approach that is based on the experiences of the US Department of Energy.