Achieve efficiency and cost reduction in manual creation tasks through standardization and internal/outsourcing framework construction

Overview of TechnoPro Holdings, Inc.

・Established: April 2012

・Capital: 6,929,696,000 yen

・Number of Employees: 24,956
(As of June 2020, consolidated group)

・Business Description: UT Group Co., Ltd. oversees and manages its group companies, including TechnoPro Co., Ltd., which provides research and development, product development, and other services in various technical fields.

 Services

- Manual Creation

・Guideline Development

- Manual Creation Support (Outsourcing)

Background

TechnoPro Group is the largest domestic technical human resources service with over 20,000 technical and research personnel in the technical dispatch field.

After various M&As and corporate integrations, TechnoPro Holdings, Inc. reorganized its subsidiary companies under a holding company in 2014 and established its current structure. However, at that time, internal systems and portal sites were not yet unified.

Therefore, Mr. Adachi from the Information Systems Administration Department took command and led the system unification under the guidance of the Information Systems Department. However, during this process, the organization and management of manuals, which were previously managed and operated separately by each company, also emerged as a major challenge.

In November 2016, we received a consultation from the project manager stating that they wanted to standardize internal manuals for office procedures and system operations. We have been providing support for manual-related tasks until July 2020.

Every year, about 3,000 employees join the TechnoPro Group, and efforts have been made to improve internal manuals in order to efficiently carry out tasks for a large number of personnel.

There are already over 300 manuals created by each company, and it seems that they have been working on improvements for over a year within the company. However, they faced the following challenges in terms of quality and structure.

Manual Quality Issues

- Due to the lack of description of the purpose and positioning of the business, employees have a limited understanding of their duties, resulting in frequent mistakes and inquiries.

- The manual is not consistent in terms of layout, content, and writing style.

・When the person in charge is busy, there may be variations in the quality of the finished manual.

＜Challenges in Organization/Workflow＞

・Due to system revisions and new system introductions, there may be more than 30 revisions per month, which can lead to a heavy workload for those in charge.

- Because manual-related tasks are personalized to the person in charge, even if others are available, they cannot help.

Human Science Solutions

We proposed the establishment of a system and workflow that can be continuously created and operated in conjunction with the improvement of the manual, as there were challenges in both quality and organization.

1) Designing Manual Improvement Policy

2) Establishment of Manual Creation System and Workflow

3) Implementation of manual improvement through outsourcing

Process until improvement implementation

First, visualize the issues of the manual through current situation analysis (December 2016 - January 2017).

Conducted manual evaluation by two evaluators. Analyzed and evaluated the manual from the perspectives of "ease of use for the user" and "ease of management for the creator", visualizing the current issues and the ideal form of the manual.

At the reporting meeting, not only the person in charge of the business, but also the executive officer participated, and we were able to smoothly proceed with future efforts by reaching a consensus among all stakeholders on the direction of improvement.

Verification and optimization through pilot projects (February to March 2017)

Implemented improvements for one manual as a pilot project based on agreed upon policies. After verifying any issues with the policies through actual project progress, we established a sample manual and manual creation guidelines. By optimizing through the pilot project, we can prevent significant rework in later stages.

Workflow Design (April 2017 ~ June 2017)

Through the session, we visualized the current workflow and issues of manual creation. We organized the tasks that were previously personalized and clarified the roles and responsibilities between in-house and outsourced manual creation tasks.

Manual Improvement Implementation (July 2017 - Present)

Following the guidelines and new workflow, we have started improving the entire manual. We have completed the major improvements to the manual and are currently working on creating and updating any new manuals that are needed.

Effect of Implementation

"We were able to achieve efficiency and cost reduction in manual creation tasks through the establishment of standardization and outsourcing frameworks."

Previously, we were constantly busy creating manuals due to sudden changes in internal systems and regulations, making it difficult to control quality and deadlines. However, by establishing standardization and outsourcing frameworks, we are now able to create and operate manuals of consistent quality in a short period of time.

Originally, the main focus was on outsourcing to Human Science, but now, in consideration of internal workload and cost balance, the responsibility for creating new or significantly revised manuals is divided between outsourcing and in-house handling by the respective departments. With standardization, the options for outsourcing have increased, resulting in improved efficiency and cost reduction in manual creation tasks.

We have been in a long-term relationship, so our understanding of our company's operations and systems has improved. It is also appreciated that you are able to create high-quality manuals with minimal input in a limited amount of time.

Evaluation of Human Science Co., Ltd.

"We rely on them as a contact for internal manual management and operation."

Our partnership began with manual evaluation and standardization processes, but now we not only serve as an outsourcing destination for manual creation, but also as a consulting partner for various needs related to internal manuals. For example, we have worked with Human Science Co., Ltd. to address constantly changing internal needs such as multilingualization of manuals for over 1,000 foreign employees, support for video manuals, and consideration of manual management systems.

Business manuals are not just created once and done, but it is necessary to continuously improve and operate them. We look forward to your support as a manual professional in our company's business improvement in the future.

Related Services

Manual Creation and User Manual Creation