In the largest corporate settlement in U.S. history, British Petroleum has agreed to pay up to $18.7 billion to the federal government and five states. When added to the $43.8 billion BP had already set aside for cleanup costs and civil and criminal penalties, its total pretax charge amounts to $53.8 billion.
Formulated with the recognition that preventive maintenance might have avoided the failure of a cement seal which caused the oil spill, API Spec Q2 requires that all organizations involved in the oil and gas industry document their "procedure for establishment of a preventive maintenance, inspection, and test program (PMITP)." A thorough documentation of any PMITP should address process, procedure, and work instructions.
The main difference between process and procedure is the level of detail. Process is high level and operates across the organization's varying functions. Processes lay out what needs to be done and when. A process should consist of a trigger, or starting event, and a terminator, or end result, that accomplishes a desired result. Processes are usually documented using a diagram or flow chart.
While processes are cross-functional and too high level for staff to perform on a day-to-day basis, procedures reside at a lower level and contain detailed descriptions of how the work is to be done and who is responsible. In other words, procedures break process down into steps. They are usually depicted in step-by-step order.
Work instructions are specific and detail exactly how each task is to be done. Work instructions can be thought of as a subdivision of procedures in that they refer to a single role whereas procedures describe instructions for several roles in the organization.
