The name says it all: digital work instructions are step-by-step instructions that do not require paper. They are, so to speak, a digital guide for an employee's day-to-day work that can be used on any electronic device such as a PC, tablet or smartphone. But not all digital is the same and, in any case, what's so bad about paper-based work instructions? Let's take a look at the differences:
But let's take another step back. Why? A poorly prepared work instruction will not lead to sustainable success in any system. So let's first take a look at how you write work instructions - whether on paper or in a worker assistance system.
When creating work instructions, you define the standard operating procedure (SOP) for recurring process sequences. This idea already makes it clear that work instructions must always be created for a sub-process. Cross-departmental work instructions, for example from goods receipt to goods issue, are inevitably doomed to failure. You should also ensure that your templates are consistent: inconsistently structured work instructions with varying structures make life difficult for your employees and increase the risk of errors.
Every work instruction consists of a set of basic information that clarifies the most important questions relating to a work order. This information includes
the purpose: What is this activity to be carried out for?
the responsibility: Who is to carry out this activity?
the work process: What tasks are to be completed?
the sequence of the work steps: How is the activity to be carried out step by step?
the workplace: Where is the work to be carried out?
the tools: What is needed to carry out the task?
Instructions and visual representations: What must be observed?
Quality specifications: When has an activity been carried out successfully?
Measured values and data: What data must be adhered to or documented?
Depending on the work order, additional information may be required. The work instruction should also be able to provide this, e.g:
Quantity / amount: How often must this activity be carried out?
Time specifications: How long may it take to complete?
Occupational safety: How are safety and occupational health and safety compliance ensured?
Version number and date: How up-to-date is the work instruction?
Change history: What changes have been made since the last revision?
Customer specifications: What special customer requirements are there?
Creating work instructions is only half the battle. Before the instructions go to your workers, you should check them thoroughly for
comprehensibility and correctness of the content
a uniform design and, if necessary, compliance with the corporate design
consistent use of technical terms
unambiguous and clear language
If everything fits, you can start testing the work instruction. Let your workers work with it and observe what problems and errors arise. Then optimize the work instruction accordingly.
Also define feedback processes. The most important comments on your work instructions come from the people who have to work with them. Their feedback is worth its weight in gold for continuous optimization.
Now that we've seen everything that goes into a good work instruction, the benefits of digital work instructions from a comprehensive system become abundantly clear. We want to give you six reasons why work instructions from a worker assistance system will definitely pay off for you.
One of the most important reasons for digital work instructions from a worker assistance system is the simple versioning and paperless distribution of your documents from a central location. You can make the updated work instruction immediately available at the touch of a button.
This ensures smooth production processes and efficient document control and ensures that no outdated instructions are in circulation. You can also easily distribute the digital work instructions in other languages and to other locations to ensure company-wide standards.
Your employees can rely on automatically being provided with the right information at the right time and in the right place. Time-consuming reconciliations are eliminated and job satisfaction increases.
Mistakes often happen due to a lack of clarity and a loss of concentration. If you have to work your way through long documents or "scroll through" tables, you can easily overlook or forget something.
With digital work instructions, you can reduce extensive or complex work instructions to a presentation of the next process step. This ensures better structuring of the work instruction itself and reduces the mental workload of your employees. You can also incorporate process blocks at critical points to ensure that errors are effectively avoided. This enables your workers to work faster, more efficiently and without errors.
The way in which something is explained has a significant impact on your employee's performance. Inexperienced workers need more detailed instructions and information compared to their experienced colleagues.
While your workers have to prepare all the information themselves with conventional work instructions, the digital work instructions from a worker assistance system provide them with the appropriate level of detail without any further intervention.
This is particularly useful for training or familiarization with new processes. On the one hand, digital work instructions save time here, and on the other, they make it easier to deploy employees flexibly. With digital work instructions, even inexperienced employees can carry out more complex processes reliably.
Both paper-based and classic digital work instructions in the form of Excel or PDF are limited in their display options. With digital work instructions from a worker assistance system, you can improve the clarity of your descriptions.
In addition to images, videos and PDF documents, you also have the option of integrating 3D models, Excel data or CAD drawings. Add parts list information and increase the relevance of the work instruction.
Provide visualizations directly in the work step and, if required, limit them to a specific section or mark important points with notes. Speaking of notes: Measured value entries can also be easily color-coded to indicate whether a measured value is within (green) or outside (red) the predefined range.
With digital work instructions from a worker assistance system, you can create a continuous flow of information - in both directions. While you always provide up-to-date information, you capture data directly from the workplace. Through the worker's input, the digital work instruction enables basic shop floor data collection or process data collection.
The system gives you a direct overview of the progress made during processing. In addition, all steps are documented digitally and consistently. This facilitates any traceability, for example in the event of complaints, and also saves on tedious downstream documentation work.
Digital work instructions from a worker assistance system are invaluable when it comes to optimizing internal processes and making them more efficient. You save time by reducing the effort involved in creating, maintaining and distributing work instructions. Clear and up-to-date instructions help you avoid errors, rework and therefore waste. You also train your employees much faster. And all this directly reduces your costs.
And another argument for all those who still work with paper-based work instructions: You can also save on the costs of paper, printing, reprinting on revision, archiving and storage with digital work instructions.
If you are still working with paper instructions, then switch directly to software for creating and displaying digital work instructions, such as a worker assistance system. Don't bother with Excel and the like, as this will not solve your challenges.
If you are already working with instructions in digital formats or with bills of materials from an ERP, import these into a modern software solution.
When selecting a system, pay particular attention to the following criteria:
User-friendliness: Is the chosen software easy and intuitive to use - both for the plan creator and the worker? Can the content be displayed attractively on all the end devices you use? Does the system meet all your requirements?
Accessibility: Is the system accessible from different locations?
Data protection and data security: How is the protection of sensitive personal data guaranteed? What options are there for setting up access controls?
Use the selected system to modernize your work instructions and perfect them with the available options. Modern solutions such as a worker assistance system usually offer an editor with which you can create digital work instructions without programming knowledge using drag-and-drop.
It is often also possible to import existing digital instructions. However, you will hardly be able to avoid manually adapting the individual work steps here either. The good news is that you will create a valuable basis and simplify every future investment process.
With a modern solution such as a worker assistance system, you have countless options for bundling everything you need for processing in one place. Take advantage of these possibilities and create meaningful, digital work instructions with:
This allows you to create not just a new digital work instruction, but a single source of truth that
records and documents all important data in the ongoing process