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Why do experienced operators work from memory instead of opening a procedure?

Most experienced operators have run the same jobs hundreds of times, and when the procedure is a long PDF that takes longer to find than the job takes…

Most experienced operators have run the same jobs hundreds of times, and when the procedure is a long PDF that takes longer to find than the job takes to do, working from memory feels like the reasonable choice. The procedure often reads like it was written for an auditor rather than the person at the valve, so it adds very little for someone who already knows the job.

The way to change that is to make the procedure faster to open than it is to skip, and useful enough that it actually helps on the steps people tend to get wrong. When the procedure shows up step by step on a device at the equipment, with the warnings sitting on the step they apply to, it stops being paperwork and starts being something an operator uses because it saves them time.