Growing Sustainably Through Strong Documentation
Small teams can have some great benefits: They are adaptable, work closely with one another, and communicate effectively. When teams grow, the opportunity increases for details to be missed and processes to become varied between team members. As growth increases, it becomes crucial to follow documented processes. Read on to learn how GIW Industries, Inc. has faced the challenges that come with a growing business.
Formalizing processes for better efficiency
In smaller businesses, processes are developed and tweaked over time. Processes are improved based on ideas and input from the people doing the work, and changes are easily communicated. But like a game of telephone, the more people and steps that exist between the process designer and the end user, the more opportunities there are for variation.
To prevent variation in quality of end products, a formalization process is necessary. Instead of relying on individual knowledge, processes must be introduced — and those processes are recorded through documentation.
According to Craig Wieberdink, GIW Director of Integrated Management, “Diversity within an organization means that not everyone understands things the same way. The biggest cause of communication issues is a lack of shared core experiences. People come from different backgrounds and understand things differently.” But establishing standard practices is a surprisingly complex and nuanced process, which to be done well is a three-step process that repeats at regular intervals: training, documentation, and auditing.
GIW’s approach
At GIW, it starts with finding the right people and training them properly. In the past, we hired foundry craftsmen — but today there aren’t as many prospective employees with that experience. Without that common experience and history of craftsmanship, training and documentation become critical.
Part of our training includes ensuring that employees understand our customers’ needs. As technology has become more complex, customers’ expectations have increased. To ensure adequate employee training, GIW has added a couple of training coordinators to the staff. These people use a variety of methods to communicate information to employees in a meaningful way — through presentations, demonstrations, visuals, etc.
The company used to be small enough and with a consistent enough workforce that we could communicate processes through training alone. Since we’ve grown, we can no longer rely on these methods. Documentation has therefore become a key component of training.
Existing documentation must be compared to actual workflows regularly to determine any differences. A lot of documentation is written for auditors but isn’t necessarily useful for users. Therefore, documentation must be evaluated to ensure that it’s understandable for employees to use. Those doing the actual work are the most likely to find time-saving techniques or other process improvements, so it’s essential to keep communication lines open with this group to make sure new process are documented accurately.
Comprehensive training and documentation are great first steps, but the final key is evaluating those processes to make sure we’re getting the expected results. We therefore perform periodic audits. GIW employs an auditing program that includes check sheets to ensure that employees are complying with internal processes. Regular audits of documentation versus actual processes can eliminate confusion, keep everyone on the same page, and serve as refresher training for employees. Auditing also reduces variation in final products.
Putting the plan into practice
GIW’s training, documentation, and auditing process helps ensure sustainable growth for the company. As an example, we recently implemented a new acceptance criteria document in the QA area. Concurrent with this document’s release, we held a professional visual inspection training for the entire QA staff and several operations personnel. Once each week, we hold a gemba walk to evaluate in-process castings and align our production work with our documented processes.
“This helps complete the loop: plan, do, check, act,” notes Mr. Wieberdink. “This is the most basic quality cycle and the foundation of the ISO 9001 standard. From this process we continue to train, inspect, and improve our product acceptance process.”
Documentation helps businesses grow sustainably, even when growth must be rapid to keep up with sudden increases in demand. Effective documentation helps staff changes go more smoothly, which saves both time and money. At GIW, every department participates in this process, not just manufacturing — we’re following the same model to improve our business processes as well. With solid documentation, we expect to grow well into the future.
