Bonafide Manufacturing is going to start using an automatic data collection system in its warehouse to track all types of material movements: receiving, storage, bin-to-bin and shipping. Bonafide has purchased bar code printers and several identical scanners. Workers on two different shifts move inventory, so it is important for inventory accuracy purposes that they perform their tasks in the same manner.

Bonafide wants to develop instructions for their workers to follow, but they are uncertain how to proceed. Following are some suggestions.


Understand the task at hand
A clear view of the size and scope of the project is necessary. In Bonafide's case, they are going to document only those procedures that pertain to their warehouse and the inventory movements to, within and from that area. Now they are ready to move to the first step: reaching a better understanding of the task at hand. To do that, several questions must be answered.

1. Why is the documentation being developed? Several common reasons: to obtain ISO or some other type of certification; to ensure consistency in personnel performance; for training purposes; for reference purposes; to introduce new equipment; to implement a new operating system or process.

2. What is the scope of the project? Some things to examine: How far does it reach; does it involve one new process only, one manufacturing line, one process flow area (e.g., shipping and receiving), an entire company under one roof, an entire company with more than one site?

3. What and how much documentation is in place? Is it current? Is it being used? Why or why not? (At this stage, look for formal as well as informal documents.)

4. Who is the audience? What are their skill sets? How frequently will they use the documents?

After answering the above questions, Bonafide is ready to plan for the documentation project. Planning for a documentation project takes time up front, but can save time down the road. The most critical question to answer: Will the documentation be written by someone at the business or will an outside technical writer be hired for the project? There are benefits and drawbacks to both methods that we'll examine in a later column. Some other areas to address include:

1. What type of documents are required? Answers may include policy statements, operating procedures, work instructions, control plans, training documents, reference manuals and reference cards.

2. How will the documents be used? As work instructions; for training purposes; as reference material; or some combination of these?

3. Who will write the documents? The operators, who will then pass them to the writer to be "edited"? A technical writer from within the company? From outside the company?

4. Who will provide input as the documents are developed?

5. Who will verify the accuracy of the documents? The same operator who provided input? A different operator who performs the same task? How will discrepancies be resolved?

6. Are there any special audience considerations or requirements? For example, is more than one language spoken?

7. What software will be used to create the documents? To manage the documents, if applicable?

8. In what type of environment will the documents be located? What might the documents be exposed to — grease, chemicals, high humidity, etc.? Use this information to determine if electronic documents are appropriate or if paper documents have special requirements, such as a need for lamination or plastic covers.

9. Once implemented, how frequently will the documents be used? Daily or weekly? Will usage go down as the job task becomes more familiar?

10. Based on all of the above, what is the preferred document format? Some examples are process mapping, placards, pict-o-grams, written procedures, or a combination of these.

11. What is the deadline for the first draft? For the final copy?

12. Once written, how will the documents be maintained? Who will be responsible?

13. How frequently will the documents be audited to ensure they are current?

Regardless of the size of the project — be it 15 documents or 200 — an understanding of the task at hand and a project plan help ensure the project moves smoothly. Both help management and those assigned to the documentation project work toward the same, agreed-upon goal. While things may change along the way, the plan also helps ensure that such changes are communicated to all involved.

Once the plan is created, it is time to start the documentation process. Along the way, verification activities take place to ensure documents are accurate and to determine that the selected format is effective. This works hand in hand with implementation and auditing, the subject of the next column.

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