The client
FlexiForce Canada is a manufacturing company in British Columbia, Canada which serves customers throughout the Americas.
The need
The client needed standard operating procedures for every machine in their factory to facilitate cross-training.
The solution
I spent a few weeks shadowing machine operators to learn how they did their jobs. Despite each machine having its quirks, there were many commonalities between machines, and the task of operating each machine could be divided into six common processes: start-up, set-up, run, changeover, shut-down, and lockout/tagout.
For each machine, I wrote a detailed procedure for each of the six common processes. The first versions of each procedure were completely devoid of any photos, as I feel that photos are often used as a crutch for bad writing. After a few rounds of editing, the procedures were shared with experienced operators to get their feedback on any details that had been left out, and inexperienced operators to get their feedback on any language that was not clear enough.
Dozuki was chosen as the content management system for providing access to the completed standard operating procedures. Touch-screen terminals had already been installed at each machine in connection with an earlier project. Photos were added to the procedures, where appropriate, with colour-coded call-outs to guide the reader as they follow the steps. The system was capable of tracking which users had been trained on each procedure.
I had hoped to run a follow-up project to calculate predetermined motion time and add this to each procedure, but there was not enough interest from management.