UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Dairy producers and agribusiness advisers have been bombarded in recent years with the recommendation to use standard operating procedures (SOPs). SOPs are often touted as the answer to whatever management problem is currently challenging a dairy farm.

Unfortunately, this recommendation rarely is accompanied by any advice or guidance. SOPs are a proven and powerful tool for managing people and resources, but to fully benefit from them, a dairy business must commit to leading a team effort and following through by monitoring results.

Robin Burke, dairy nutrition specialist with Agway Feed and Nutrition, recently participated in Dairy Alliance's SOP training workshop at the Mercer County Penn State Cooperative Extension office. She brought along a few of her producer clients who are interested in developing their own SOPs.

During the interactive workshop, Burke and her clients worked on actual SOPs that the producers plan to implement in their dairy businesses. They were able to practice skills that they learned during the workshop and directly compare their plans to those of other producers.

"My clients were able to obtain more from this workshop than other workshops that are usually offered." Burke says. "My clients were actually able to write SOPs in the workshop."

Advisers and producers worked together in small groups and shared ideas as they wrote. Later, all of the producers and advisers compared their first-draft procedures and pointed out the relative strengths and weaknesses of each.

The Dairy Alliance workshop emphasizes an important lesson about writing and implementing SOPs -- it has to be a team effort. On an actual dairy farm, farm workers, managers and dairy farm advisers -- all SOP stakeholders -- influence how work is performed. They all must be satisfied with the farm's standard operating procedures.

If all stakeholders share commitment to the procedure because they helped create it, then there is a strong likelihood that it will be adopted and supported. Of course, if anyone feels left out of the process, they are much less likely to support the resulting procedures.

Whether it's milk quality, feed bunk management or steps for evaluating an employee all effective standard operating procedures begin with a specific result in mind. The first step is to identify what specific work performance will improve through standardization. The last step is to follow through with adjustments based on carefully monitored performance results.

Once performance expectations are clarified among workers, management and advisers, procedure steps can be designed that address weaknesses in performance. Results then are monitored and regularly shared with the SOP stakeholders. Follow-through is completed when performance bottlenecks are identified and corrected, workers are coached to improve performance and procedures are changed to capitalize on creative solutions to problems.

Some of the producers participating in the Dairy Alliance workshop commented that the opportunity to practice writing SOPs really helped them. They feel more comfortable implementing standard procedures in their own businesses now because they've had some practice and a clear model to follow.

In addition, they said the monitoring plans would help them to capture the full potential of standardized procedures. Burke now has a new tool that she can use to help other clients improve their management practices.

For more information about the Dairy Alliance SOP Workshop, contact Richard Stup, human resource specialist, at tap10@psu.edu.

Contact:

Jeff Mulhollem jjm29@psu.edu 814-863-2719 814-865-1068 fax