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Documentation keeps the knowledge in-house

Are your employees holding on to manufacturing know-how that should be shared with others?

Figure 1
This assembler knows how and where to apply an adhesive because of the documented process found on the screen near his workstation.

How much of your company’s knowledge walks out of the door every time an employee exits?

Do your activities, which usually run like clockwork, turn into a nightmare when your employees go on vacation? Why does your quality department complain about the same issues arising every time someone replaces a longtime worker on the shop floor?

These scenarios have a lot of names in the corporate world. Brain drain and human capital flight are just a couple. Retirement also falls into this category, because as experienced workers leave, they are taking their tribal knowledge with them. No matter what you call it, each time it occurs, a manufacturer suffers.

Just How Large Is the Problem?

This loss of know-how is a big deal. In the U.S. labor market, according to the last 10 years of data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average yearly separation rate in the manufacturing sector is 28.25 percent. That suggests that approximately three out of 10 employees will leave a manufacturing company every year. (These “separations” refer to employees who quit, are laid off, or fired.)

In Canada the story is slightly better. From 2000 to 2008, the average yearly separation rate in the manufacturing sector was 18.6 percent. That reveals that two out of 10 employees leave a manufacturer every year.

Industry experts say that maintaining an average yearly separation rate of 10 percent is ideal. But it is not as simple as that. That turnover rate doesn’t suggest which employees might be leaving.

For example, organizational research suggests that 25 percent of a company’s workforce is responsible for about 61 percent of the organization’s success. These are the top performers that a company doesn’t want to lose. At the very least, the business really needs to capture their knowledge.

On the other hand, another 25 percent of employees actually don’t contribute anything to a company’s success. In fact, they cause a loss of -0.7 percent, according to recent research. Separation from this group is a good thing, but they don’t turn over automatically.

Whether this type of separation occurs because of a downsizing event or an employee leaves of his or her free will, a manufacturing company faces a real threat of losing valuable knowledge. These organizations need to find a way to reduce or eliminate the negative effects associated with such departures.

Getting Back to the Fundamentals

So what is a company to do? Human beings are always striving to succeed. Success comes when humans have the right knowledge. Generations have learned how to pass down knowledge to the next generation. As a result, the next generation won’t repeat the same mistakes of previous generations. Knowledge transfer occurs so that humans can build a better and brighter future.

Figure 2
Combined with technology such as smart tablets, a documented process doesn’t have to be limited to a numbered list of actions. The documented process can be enhanced with pictures and video.

How can knowledge transfer occur in a company? How can the company build upon that knowledge to improve on a continual basis? How can the organization keep the knowledge so that it can be easily passed on to the next generation or, better still, the next employee?

Many companies have searched for such a knowledge transfer process, but only the most successful have accomplished it. Let’s look at some of the ways that manufacturers enable knowledge transfer.

The Toyota Production System. Toyota’s recent mistakes can be traced back to the vehicle manufacturer not following its own best practices. Its rise to success comes from following basic principles, and those principles rely on one common thing: work instructions. Without them, you can’t perform kaizen events because no one knows the exact processes. You can’t implement improvements if there is no method to document the standardization of work. Clear and concise work instructions are the foundation for all of Toyota’s improvement activities.

The Shewhart Cycle. William Edwards Deming, a U.S. engineer and business consultant, was a strong advocate of the Shewhart cycle, which is also known as PDCA (plan/do/check/act). Basically it is the method of repeating a process to determine the next actions. During planning, you clearly define the process. In doing, you follow the process exactly. In checking, you measure the factual results of the process. In acting, you take steps to improve the results.

The critical part of this approach is that all actions must be documented. Committing to this ensures that knowledge is captured, followed, and turned into improved results.

Don’t worry if sometimes the results go in the wrong direction. The process can be reviewed and shortcomings can be removed. Knowledge is improved because everyone is learning from the mistakes.

Six Sigma and DMAIC. In terms of manufacturing problem-solving efforts, Six Sigma has emerged as the most identifiable approach to boost quality. Six Sigma refers to an actual statistical result reflecting the maturity of a manufacturing process, but in more general terms it refers to a set of tools designed to help organizations improve the results of their business processes by leveraging data to reduce defects. One of the most popular and effective problem solving tools that is part of this methodology is DMAIC, which stands for define, measure, analyze, improve, and control.

As part of defining, a team states the problem, identifies the goals to deliver a resolution, and outlines the target process. When measuring progress, the team decides on parameters and carries out the “experiments” to see where they are. Then analysis of gaps between actual and goal performance takes place, with the goal of identifying causes for the gaps. In the improvement stage, the team devises potential solutions. To maintain control, the team generates a new plan and monitors it closely to ensure success.

Although the process appears as a closed-loop continuous improvement (kaizen) cycle, the reality is more complex. DMAIC, by its very design, relies on the existence or creation of a current process, or best practices, to define the problem and identify goals. Without a clear understanding of the current state, a company cannot optimize attempts to clearly and accurately identify the problem and develop the solutions.

Lack of accurate process documentation affects more than the define phase of a DMAIC-driven project. Not only do the effects of poor documentation sabotage measuring and analysis (bad inputs lead to bad outputs), but the deployment and the sustainment of improvements as part of the improve and control phases also are compromised.

This clearly identifies the need for a user-focused process documentation tool with which current processes, despite their weaknesses, can be quickly documented prior to kicking off a kaizen event. The right tool can then be used to document and deploy improvements, which greatly improves the sustainability of the changes.

Kaizen. The kaizen process can be a great starting point for organizations to kick off just about any impnrovement effort. The importance of clear process documentation is apparent just by reviewing the steps of this continual improvement exercise:

  1. Define the problem.
  2. Document the current situation.
  3. Visualize the ideal situation.
  4. Define measurement targets.
  5. Brainstorm solutions to the problem.
  6. Develop a kaizen plan.
  7. Implement the plan.
  8. Measure, record, and compare results to targets.
  9. Prepare summary documents.v
  10. Create a short-term action plan, ongoing standards, and a sustainment plan.

Documenting the Process

No matter the improvement methodology a manufacturer chooses to follow, it still needs to begin with proper documentation. The best way to capture knowledge, improve it, and pass it on is to document it (see Figure 1).

If the star employee goes to another company, his or her knowledge is captured. The replacement can pick up where the former employee left off and continue to move forward by following documented best practices.

A reliable employee’s vacation doesn’t have to be a time for stress and uncertainty. Those that fill in for the absent employee can follow the documented process (see Figure 2) that made the employee so reliable. Better still, when the vacationing employee returns, he or she can stand back, observe their work processes with fresh eyes, and suggest improvements to make the processes better.