The House of Cheviot is situated in the historic town of Hawick in the Scottish Borders, an area famous for its knitwear. Their clientele ranges from royalty to gamekeepers, and their military connections include the Royal Regiment of Scotland. They are very proud of their association with the film industry, especially the Harry Potter films for which they created the Hogwarts socks, pullovers and scarves.
The House of Cheviot is situated in the historic town of Hawick in the Scottish Borders, an area famous for its knitwear. Their clientele ranges from royalty to gamekeepers, and their military connections include the Royal Regiment of Scotland. They are very proud of their association with the film industry, especially the Harry Potter films for which they created the Hogwarts socks, pullovers and scarves.
The Company combines traditional skills developed over 200 years with the very latest knitting technology, to produce the finest collection of country and kilt socks. For the country market, the sock range offers cushion comfort alongside technical performance; for the highland kilt market, they have the capability to offer a bespoke service to create hose to match most clan tartans.
During manufacture, House of Cheviot products pass through many pairs of skilled hands, ensuring that all of their finished garments are of a consistently high standard.
Project Brief
To define company operating procedures and produce Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). All quality impacting processes and procedures should be laid out in Standard Operating Procedures. SOP is a written document or instruction detailing all steps and activities of a process or procedure. These should be carried out without any deviation or modification to impart continuity and guarantee the expected outcome.
The company relied on a “buddy” process for imparting instructions and process management and recognised the inherent risk to business continuity. SoSBS was engaged to assist the business with a project to review the manufacturing process and provide guidance and knowledge to compile a Standard Operating Procedure file for the company.
A four-stage process was scoped out.
Audit – the company operating procedures and identify the key processes in administration, manufacturing and quality monitoring and control.
Document – all quality impacting processes.
Draft – Assist the Company Director in preparation of a SOP manual. Advise and assist in preparing SOPs and compiling SOP manual.
Review – the SOPs against process.
Delivery
George Foster, Business Liaison Officer with South of Scotland Business Solutions, was identified with the relevant skills and experience to support the company and deliver the project brief.
The project required George to spend time working with the company’s manufacturing staff, initially mapping out the production steps and observing the operation before systematically drafting Standard Operating Procedures for the key processes. For the more complex procedures, such as setting up production machines, photographs of the key steps were used in the SOP to illustrate the action.
As each of SOPs was drafted, it was submitted to the Company for review by the relevant operative and amendments identified. A master index was also compiled and throughout this stage a number of additional processes were added.
Initial draft SOPs were submitted, marked as DRAFT versions. Following a final review, conducted with the Company MD and Production Supervisors with George Foster, the working versions of the procedures were agreed and the documents marked “Working Version” and converted to pdf files to protect the content.
Outcome
The Company has compiled the individual SOPs into a working folder and strategically placed copies in the production areas. Employees are directed to refer to the SOP ‘manual’ when undertaking the various manufacturing procedures, to ensure continuity in the process.
As well as providing management with the knowledge to develop a comprehensive manual, the process has enabled the company to have a resume which will assist with quality control and improve efficiency and performance within the business.