Abstract In this work, a sliding mode controller (SLMC) design approach has been proposed based on second order plus dead time process (SOPDTP). The SOPDTP model of the industrial processes have been obtained by performing a simple closed-loop set-point experiment (CLSPE) having a proportional controller only. The operating procedure of SLMC comprises of continuous and discontinuous control law. The parameters of continuous control law are derived by considering SOPDTP parameters and using the root locus technique. The discontinuous control law parameters are obtained by minimizing a performance index with the help of grasshopper optimization technique. The proposed SLMC design method has been validated by considering several examples with higher order process having diverse dynamics. The performance improvement by the proposed method over the recently reported work has been observed under nominal, perturbed and noisy conditions.