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Standardized Work

By:
Bill Brockhurst
LEAD Associate
Lean Advisors Inc.

Job Shop training typically consists of hands-on training and by craftsmen passing down words of wisdom to apprentices. As craftsmen leave companies, the knowledge that the craftsmen has accumulated through the years is lost! Only the experience that the craftsman passes down to the apprentice stays in the company. Standardized Work instruction is a method to document this knowledge and to prevent the loss of the expertise.

1. What is Standardized Work and Standardized Work Instructions?

Standardized Work

  • » A Task is completed exactly the same way every time no matter who is performing the procedure.

Standardized Work Instructions

  • » A visual step-by-step documentation that displays how to complete a task.
  • » Work Instructions are a way of communicating to the employees the precise steps to be used to complete the given task.

2. Important considerations to successfully complete Standardized Work Instructions

Standardized Work Instructions give you a step-by-step training document for employees to explain how to complete a given task. Employee's training will be consistent and remove the "oh I forgot to tell you about that" situation that exists with undocumented training by fellow workers. Expectations of a completed task will be visible, understood by everyone, agreeable by all stakeholders with the documents being readily available for reference at any given time. Most importantly, it is an opportunity to allow you to build quality into the process with a predictable and consistent end product every time.

Don't forget to communicate with your customers, because this is a prefect opportunity to include the Customer expectations into each process. The Voice Of The Customer is usually heard through the design and sales people. Documenting Standardized Work is a starting point for improving the process and will help stabilize the process so you can identify more improvements.

3. How to write Standardized Work Instructions

  • » Take your best operators and sit down with them and ask, "How do you do your job?" As you are going though the list of tasks, document the steps. Be sure to document the steps in the language that the operator(s) use, and understandable for any new employees. It is essential to breakdown steps into the finest detail possible, as it is second nature for people to skip over steps that are only common sense to them, but doesn't always mean that they are common sense for new employees.
  • » Once you have the rough draft of the Standardized Work Instructions, it is a good time to get feedback from the other operators. Go over each of the steps and include their feedback.
  • » It is extremely important to receive input from the internal customers. You should involve the supplying process so they can look for opportunities to provide the product exactly as required. The supplying process must understand how they impact the process and take the steps required to resolve any roadblocks. Also, involve the receiving process to make sure that the product will arrive to them as required if the tasks are completed as stated in the Standardized Work Instructions. It is critical to have the Standardized Work Instructions reflect the internal customer needs.
  • » Once the Standardized Work is complete, all the involved employees must be trained. This is where you look for support from the employees to complete the task as documented.
  • » Standardized Work Instructions should be posted for easy reference and communication - Make them Visible. Caution you should avoid posting Standardized Work Instructions on a computer as it becomes too much work to find the information. It is just one of those proverbial sayings "Out of sight, out of mind".
  • » In Job Shops there is an inherent history of the craftsman type attitude. In a craftsmen's culture it can, at times, be difficult to standardize because individual employees get some satisfaction from thinking that their way is best and will not always comply with the documented method. For Standardized Work Instructions to be implemented and effective, you must have a plan to audit the process for compliance, making sure that the audit results are not being used as a discipline process. The goal is ensure that nobody diverts from the procedures. If it is discovered that they are not doing the work as expected ask why. Other Lean tools can also be used to prevent people from varying from their procedures. Tools such as Poka Yoke, 5S, Flow, Mistake Proofing, etc will reduce variation (these will be another topic we will deal with in a later article).
  • » The next phase now starts; you have stabilized the process with the Standardize Work Instructions, now you start to look for improvements. Once you have the required improvement, you can change the Standardize Work Instructions to include the improvements and then train all affected. Next, implement the new Standardized Work Instructions to stabilize the process again.
  • » Standardized Work Instructions will allow you to have a meaningful discussion with external customer(s) with regard to what it is they truly require, always remembering that they are the one's paying for each step in the process.

4. What are the benefits?

One of the major problems with determining the root cause of Quality issues is that the finished product is not always processed consistently every time. Not having a consistent and reliable end-product causes internal frustration and could lead to loss of customer loyalty. Predictability is a very important criteria when comes to manufacturing and customer satisfaction. If you have a Standardized Process, it is much easier to determine the root cause of a problem and incorporate the solution in the Standardized Work instruction to minimize the chance of the issue reoccurring. All people have the habit of going back to the good old days, not saying that the good old days are a bad thing but when it comes to sustain improvements, it is not good. This is why you have to document the changes and train all involved employees to incorporate the change.

Standardized Work instruction is a way to involve the employees into the company's culture of Continuous Improvement. Employee involvement is very important to job satisfaction and to stimulate the employee's interest in their daily work. Standardized Work instruction helps to remove what is becoming the accepted 8th sin of waste, not utilizing the employee's knowledge and abilities. Standardized Work instruction can be integrated in the company culture by making employees responsible for the Standardized work instruction with management overseeing the process with sign-off authority. Standardized work instruction can go a long way to remove the fears of the job not being completed correctly and gives the employees the confidence to do their job.

Standardized work is one of the most powerful tools in the Lean toolbox. It is where both the Employees and Management are in a win-win situation. Employee involvement is encouraged and it is essential for their input into the best way for the work to be completed because they are the experts at the task!