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Why you should document your operations
Bob Utech
PowderVisions - West Concord, MN USA
What kinds of things did you have to do to survive the recession?
To survive our recession, some of you must make do with what you have
and fix and repair what you have. Process documentation is one way to
put a restraint to the challenges of today's fast changing business
threats. Transmitting clearly communicated messages are essential for
your business's future growth and development. However, transmitting
a clear message is only one part of the process. The more important
question is whether everyone in your company is getting the same
message? Once you have thoroughly documented your operations, you are
provided with the tools to improve cost efficiency. These tools can
be the difference between operating a business and perhaps closing
the doors to some companies.
As a consultant, I am continually amazed at the thought process
employees sometimes take when confronted with a company's attempt at
advancement and/or business securement. I am speaking of the
documentation of work processes.
Some employees (especially floor employees) have expressed concern
that documentation won't work in "their" area or that documentation
won't help. Many simply don't know what documentation is.
A bad operating manual can be the trigger for a verbal claim of
malfeasance from you or a newly hired employee meaning the company
knew what to do, but failed to do it or at least pass this
information on to the employee. The goal of any company should be the
documentation of its specific jobs in the company giving instruction
to the employee on how to adequately complete their jobs.
Operating Procedures:
The interesting thing here is that when an operating procedure has
been described poorly, the employee may make multiple mistakes until
they are taught or shown an apparently much more detailed operating
procedure than described to them originally.
It cannot be expected for them, as employees to understand some or
many of the verbal explanations of the installation engineer, to
write it down and refer to it for later use. The lack of instructions
regarding correct manufacturing constitutes a deficiency in the
operating manual, thus mistakes will occur.
The deficiency in the operating manual can often result a defect of
the purchase item (product or service).
You can prepare yourselves against such scenarios with professional
technical documentation. Good, understandable and reliable
documentation corresponds to fulfilling the requirements of the job
and its equipment.
Correct Documentation:
Your investment in creating professional documentation can often
protect the company from large-scale damage and simultaneously
increase your customers' satisfaction and promote the image of the
company.
How do you insure the quality of your work?
As a matter of principle, all companies try to employ exceptional,
qualified employees who know their "handiwork". Nevertheless, we're
human and errors occur. This is why your company should have the
future vision to create uniform quality standards and written
operating procedures. Your company should be asking you to help
create documentation and proofread: a process where both text and
illustrations are checked for comprehensibility and its relationship
to the job.
WHY?
Minimize Risk
Compliance
Communication
Continuity/Repeatability
Education
Process Improvement
Here are reasons why documentation helps:
1. It keeps you on track. If you write down your strategy and your
principles, personal emotional storms or distractions won't throw
your operation into backsliding or paralysis. You may slow down a bit
when things get hard, but you will still be headed in the right
direction.
2. You won't have to be mind-readers. If you want to do things the
most efficient way every time › the way you prefer › write down exact
instructions for doing those processes, and then work the strategy.
This documentation is for those workplace tasks performed over and
over again. Take the time to document every single recurring
process.
3. You won't have to be fortune-tellers. In your documentation, you
will lay out your ambitions, strengths, weaknesses, and how you will
get there. It will all be there: no mysteries, questions or
confusion.
4. Everyone in your organization will be pointed in the same
direction. By outlining the whats and hows of your business, your
group-effort will become focused and directed. By traveling in a
straight line, your organization will reach goals sooner.
5. You will find yourself working on the causes of problems, not in
fixing problems that occur.
6. Training time is reduced. New employees can learn much quicker
when learning the job through your documented training procedures.
They do it themselves, and your senior people are not caught up in
one-on-one training of newcomers.
7. For you, the employee and for your clients, your documentation
will signal that you are a professional › someone who cares enough
about what they do to write it down and analyze it. Your customers
will be proud of the work you do for them.
Don't let erroneous implementations fail your company. The major
implication of such haphazard application of processes and procedures
is a highly negative impact on company performance and
vulnerability.
Yes, boring but true: Documentation takes some initial hard work, but
in the long-term, the investment pays off a thousand times over.
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