Control SOP changes with working copies, approval, publication, revision history, and deliberate employee-action decisions.
The controlled revision path
- Edit the working copy first. The employee-facing published copy should stay unchanged until management intentionally releases the revision.
- Record what changed and why. A revision number without a reason does not explain the operational decision.
- Review and approve the revision before publication. Approval means management accepts the working revision; publication is the separate action that makes it current for employees.
- Keep the superseded revision in history. Do not overwrite the only record of what employees were previously taught.
Decide what employees must do after a change
- Every revision is not equal. Management should decide whether the change requires full retraining, a new quiz, acknowledgment only, or no additional employee action.
- The software can present the choices and preserve the decision, but the restaurant—not AI—owns the judgment.
- A changed wording or typo may require little action. A changed allergen step, safety control, recipe method, opening procedure, or equipment process may justify stronger retraining and verification.
Verify the release
- After publication, open the employee view and confirm the correct title, revision, steps, related poster or recipe links, training requirement, and effective date.
- Remove or retire obsolete printed copies and QR destinations when necessary so the physical workplace does not contradict the current published procedure.
- If employees keep reopening an older topic after a revision, investigate the reason instead of assuming resistance. The new instruction may be unclear, hard to find, or operationally difficult.
What good revision control protects
- A manager can answer: What is current? What changed? Why did it change? Who approved it? What were employees required to do? What version did the prior team use?
- That record protects consistency and makes future corrections easier because the restaurant can trace decisions instead of rebuilding history from memory.
Gravity rule: Use the smallest control that makes the truth easier to see and the work easier to repeat. Records should describe what actually happened, not what the restaurant hopes happened.
Next step
Use this guide on its own, or move into Gravity SOP Foundry when you need to build, record, verify, or maintain the work.