Case Study: Process Documentation

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An electrical components manufacturer needed to document its factory floor processes in producing a product widely used by other manufacturers in the electronics industry.  The company had two objectives: 1) reduce the defect rate in its U.S. factory by having up-to-date documentation of its processes for use in training, as well as on the shop floor; 2) train workers for a new plant being built in China.

There were a number of challenges.  The company had only a limited amount of documentation on these processes and no one knew how up-to-date that documentation was.  In addition, the existing documentation had been written by engineers for an engineering audience, as opposed to the manufacturing staff, with a different level of reading comprehension.  The company wanted to use a particular format for the complete set of documents because it had already invested in an off-the-shelf tool which it used for other documentation and it wanted everything to have a consistent format.  Finally, the company needed someone to come in and “own” the project as the company’s own employees were all committed to core competency projects and meeting product deadlines.

The company engaged InfoPros to create documents from scratch and update existing documents to meet manufacturing standards.

Solution

A Senior Technical Writer from InfoPros, over a two-month period, spent two weeks at the client’s California factory, taking photographs and notes, watching the company’s line operators work, and interviewing product engineers.   Although the InfoPros employee had not previously used the proprietary system, she quickly learned to use it effectively. When older documentation was available, she compared that documentation to her observations, working with the engineers and the line operators to resolve any conflicts and ensure complete accuracy of the new documentation.  InfoPros created a series of 15 documents of varying lengths, which documented each workstation in the entire shop floor manufacturing process.  To ensure that the shop floor personnel would find the documentation easy to use and, as a result, be more inclined to use it, the documents relied heavily on graphics while reducing word count, thus reducing future localization and translation costs.

Result

The company received a comprehensive set of documentation for its manufacturing processes, designed specifically for the line personnel.  By outsourcing the project to InfoPros, the company’s employees, both the line personnel and engineers, were not distracted from their primary responsibilities.

In addition, the documentation was developed to allow easy updating at minimal cost.  It will also be easy to translate this documentation into other languages.

The net result?  The factory floor process documentation has allowed the client to do a better job of training its employees in the U.S., as well as support the ramp up of a new plant in China.

Note:  No visuals are provided with this case study because these documents depict the bulk of the client’s trade secrets.