Product Manual Improvement Case Studies
Building a system to create and operate user-friendly manuals from the user's perspective

eve autonomy, Inc. Overview

・Established: February 2020

・Capital: 200 million yen (including capital reserve)

Number of Employees: 30 (as of May 2022)

Business Overview: Development, sales, leasing, and rental of autonomous vehicles and transport carts, provision of automated transport solutions

Services Utilized

・Manual Improvement

　-Manual Evaluation

　-Creation of Manual Production Guidelines

Background

Eve Autonomy Inc. (abbreviated) is a joint venture established by Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. and Tier Four Inc. It provides automated transportation services for factories and plants under the name "eve auto."

At eve autonomy, we have user manuals, internal business manuals, and manuals for sales agents, with volumes ranging from 80 to 400 pages. Additionally, the writing of the manuals was carried out by three internal staff members.

*About eve auto
https://eveautonomy.com/services/
It is an automatic transport service that can be introduced without construction and can tow up to 1,500 kg, suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.

Challenges and Background Before Implementation

We want to create a system for manual creation

In November 2021, we received an inquiry from Director Nakayama, requesting support for the maintenance of manuals on the Human Science website.

Eve Autonomy faced the following challenges regarding the manuals under development.
"Since multiple people are involved in creating the manuals, there are inconsistencies in granularity, coherence, and terminology depending on the person responsible."
"As frequent updates are expected, we want to ensure that the quality remains the same regardless of who creates it."
"Since revisions are certain to occur, we want to implement proofreading management and cloud integration to make corrections easy."
"In terms of cloud integration, we want to avoid anything that is overly complex to operate."

Additionally, Eve Autonomy plans to start the Eve Auto business in the fall of 2022, and there is a need to increase support members and horizontally deploy the know-how for that purpose.

With the update of the "eve auto operation manual" created for users having settled down for the time being, we have decided to outsource the improvement of this manual.

Reasons for Choosing Human Science

A company that can create a system for manual creation

A competition was held among three production companies, including ours, and you chose our company based on the following criteria.

• ● Not only can we rewrite existing manuals to be more understandable, but we can also create a system for sustainably producing clear manuals in the future.
• ● Is it possible to use a tool that can be viewed on a smartphone, assuming the end users of the manual are the workers in the factory?

We received a request to ensure that the manuals are of the same quality regardless of which staff member creates them. Therefore, we proposed improvements to the already created 'eve auto operation manual' so that it can serve as a model for the members of eve autonomy when creating manuals. Additionally, we included the creation of 'manual creation guidelines' to maintain quality during the ongoing maintenance of manuals within eve autonomy.

In order to build a useful system, it is important to accurately understand the current challenges and identify what actions are truly necessary.
Therefore, as a preliminary step before improving manuals or creating guidelines, we have included "current situation analysis" and "consideration of action plans for improvement" through the analysis of existing manuals and interviews with manual personnel in our proposal.

Furthermore, regarding the request to "move to the cloud," we proposed helpdog as a tool that anyone can easily create and update. Its simple and easy-to-understand operation, along with smartphone accessibility, made us believe it fits the image of manual utilization at eve autonomy.

* About helpdog (Helpdog Manual)
https://toaster.how/
This is a tool provided by noco Inc. that allows anyone to easily create and share manuals and knowledge.

As a result, we received an order from Human Science that meets the criteria of "whether we can create a system to continuously produce easy-to-understand manuals ourselves."
Additionally, it was mentioned that our track record in creating manuals for equipment and software was also one of the deciding factors.

Implementation Process

Current Situation Analysis, Consideration of Action Plan

In January 2021, we interviewed three manual creators about their concerns and challenges regarding manual creation and updates. Additionally, we conducted an investigation from the perspective of technical communication on the manuals created by eve autonomy, presenting issues and improvement proposals. Based on the feedback gathered from the interviews, we considered actions for improvement.

Designing the structure of the manual table of contents, improvement samples, and creating guidelines

In February, we designed an easy-to-understand table of contents from the user's perspective and conducted a quality alignment of the manual using improvement samples. Additionally, we created a draft of the guidelines, summarizing the rules and settings for the styles to be used in the manual, as well as the terminology and expressions we want to standardize.

Overall improvement of manuals, adjustment of guidelines

Finally, from late February to March, we carried out overall improvements to the "eve auto Operation Manual" and made fine adjustments to the guidelines. Additionally, we conducted a manual review on helpdog. Through this, the eve autonomy team was able to experience the process of creating and managing manuals internally going forward, as well as identify issues.

Improved "eve auto Operation Manual"

Implementation Effects

The awareness of the internal manual staff has changed

We received the following feedback from eve autonomy.

By creating a model manual and establishing guidelines with helpdog, other members responsible for manuals were also able to learn "how to make a manual easy to understand." I feel that their awareness has changed.

After the release of the eve auto Operation Manual, we want to measure the effect of switching to helpdog while observing user reactions.

Evaluation of Human Science Co., Ltd.

I was able to achieve what I wanted to do

We received the following evaluation from Eve Autonomy.

By introducing helpdog as the platform for manual creation and further establishing model manuals and guidelines as references, we were able to achieve our initial goal of "creating a system for manual production."
Also, by having the manuals objectively analyzed from the perspective of someone unfamiliar with the product, issues that internal members had not recognized became apparent.
Regarding the project management, task management was clear, and I feel that the schedule was followed as planned.

Currently, based on the manuals and guidelines created by Human Science, we are considering how to operate the manuals going forward while utilizing helpdog.

Related Services

Creation of Manuals and User Guides