In developing guidance to staff undertaking routine tasks, it is common to have a hierarchy of policy, processes, procedures and work instructions. A work instruction is the lowest level description in the hierarchy, and describes how to perform a specific task, such as adding the supplier’s contact details to the vendor file. Policy documents state the high-level principles that underpin a broad area of activity, such as a sourcing. Processes referred to a set of relevant activities that transform inputs into outputs. An example might be the process for supplier appraisal. Procedures outline how to perform a process in terms of who performs which action, in what sequence, and to what standard. A second example could be the procedure for adding a supplier to the supply base.

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