[Learn from Successful Cases!] 3 Points for Creating Business Manuals ~To Maximize Effectiveness~

1. Three Benefits of Creating Business Manuals

Have you ever had a moment where you thought you understood the explanation of your job duties from your boss or senior colleague, but when you actually started working, you were confused and thought, "Wait, how am I supposed to do this?" Or have you ever seen your colleagues doing their tasks in different ways and wondered, "Which way is the right way?" or "Wouldn't it be more efficient to have a unified approach?"

If you have faced such problems, you may have thought, "I wish I had a well-organized manual..." However, many companies do not have the time to create operation manuals while also carrying out their regular tasks, so they tend to put it off. In fact, many of our clients who consult with us are struggling with the situation of wanting to create an operation manual, but being too busy with their regular tasks to do so.

As you may have realized, unfortunately, creating business manuals is not something that can be done quickly. However! By taking the time to create them, you can achieve great results. Specifically, what kind of effects can you expect?

The first effect is improvement of business quality.
By organizing business procedures, you will be able to have an overview of the entire business. You can find unnecessary parts and improvement points in the current business, and use them to improve business quality.

In fact, we have often received feedback from clients stating that the greatest achievement was being able to take stock of their operations through the manual creation process. One of the significant benefits of manual production is not only documenting operations but also being able to review the operations themselves during the process.

The second effect is standardization of work quality.
By organizing work procedures in a visible manner, it ensures that a consistent level of work results can be achieved regardless of who is in charge.

A common situation when business manuals are not established is that employees tend to compile points and tips for performing their tasks individually in notes. This leads to the personalization of work, making it impossible to share rules across the organization. Business manuals can be utilized as a platform to visualize these individual insights and know-how, and to return them to the organization.

The third effect is improving education efficiency.
Having a business manual allows for efficient education of new members in a short amount of time. It also helps reduce the workload of those in charge of education. Furthermore, it enables accurate education by teaching the purpose and steps of the work without any omissions.

The other day, a company contacted us in a panic, saying, "A veteran employee is about to retire, and we realized that none of the know-how has been documented. If this continues, our technology and know-how will be lost!" It is crucial to start organizing operational manuals early to ensure that the technology and know-how cultivated within the organization are reliably passed on to the next generation.

How about it? I would be very happy if knowing the effects that can be obtained would make more people interested in creating business manuals.

However, it is dangerous to recklessly start creating business manuals just because you want to achieve results quickly. Next, we will introduce the key points for successfully creating business manuals.
Related Blog: Key Points for Creating Manuals to Achieve Business Standardization

This document introduces methods for optimal operation and establishment when creating manuals, as well as case studies from various companies.
[Related Materials] Tips for Creating and Establishing Business Manuals from Professionals

2. 3 Points for Successful Business Manual Creation

From customer testimonials, our company believes there are three key points to successfully creating business manuals.

Point 1: Determine the purpose and scope of the business manual

When you start creating a business manual, the first step is to determine its purpose and scope. If you rush into creating the manual without defining these aspects, you may end up with a manual that takes a long time to produce but is rarely used. For example, if the purpose is to transfer technology from veteran employees to younger staff, then the tasks handled by the veteran employees should naturally be the focus of the manual. If the goal is to visualize complex tasks and share them with the team, you should start with the most complicated and difficult tasks for manualization. Therefore, it is important to decide which tasks will be documented, who the target users of the manual are, and what you want to achieve by using the manual.

Point 2: Start with creating small manuals

Prioritize the tasks you want to document and start by creating a manual for one task. It is recommended to choose a task that can be applied to other tasks as well. If you create a large manual from the beginning, it will be difficult to make revisions if necessary. By starting small, you can verify what should be included in the manual and what template would be most suitable, allowing you to proceed with the creation with minimal setbacks. Please use the results of this verification for future task manual creation.

In the case of a manufacturing client, we first tackled the manual for the product with the most general features, rather than the most popular product. By selecting the manual to work on first from the perspective of "Which manual can be expanded to more other products and services?", the introduction of manuals across the entire range of products and services becomes smoother.

Point 3: Decide on a manager for the business manual.

Even if you create a business manual, it is meaningless if it is not properly utilized. A common issue is that, although a manual is created, it fails to reflect the detailed procedures and flow of information that are updated daily, and before you know it, the content of the manual no longer matches reality and becomes obsolete.

To prevent such situations, let's designate a manager for the business manual from the creation stage. The manager does not necessarily need to be well-versed in each specific task. By appointing someone to consistently manage the business manual—such as how updates will be made, where and how the manual will be managed, and who will edit the manual—it can be properly updated in accordance with changes in operations, ensuring that the latest information reaches users, allowing for the continued use of a living business manual!

How did you find the three points to successfully create a business manual? Some of you may feel that it seems difficult to actually create one. In such cases, it might be a good idea to leave it to the experts at first. Next, I will briefly introduce some examples of companies we have supported.
[Related Blog] Six Points for Creating a Business Manual

This document clearly introduces five key points for creating a good manual. Please feel free to download and make use of it.
Related Materials: Five Key Points for a Good Manual

3. Case Studies and Effects of Implementing Business Manuals

●Tokyu Livable, Inc.

＜Needs/Challenges＞
This company had a need to create a business manual for sharing the basic concepts and workflow of office and store rental brokerage services. They also faced the challenge of work being personalized, with a difference in skills and knowledge between veteran employees and those with less experience.

＜Solution＞
Through interviews with new employees who will be the main users of the business manual, we clarified the purpose and scope of the manual and created it while sharing the finished image.

＜Customer Feedback＞
By creating a business manual, we were able to share the standard flow and process of our work with newly assigned employees, which was a significant achievement.
https://www.science.co.jp/case/tokyu_livable/manual/

●Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

＜Needs/Challenges＞
This company had a need to "efficiently promote human resource development within the company by creating manuals for non-routine tasks."

＜Solution＞
Among the many tasks, we first identified the business procedures for one task and proceeded with manualization. In addition, we made efforts to share the manual creation workflow with the client's internal working group, rather than just creating the manual.

＜Customer Feedback＞
By creating manuals for the parts that relied on individual education, we were able to lay a solid foundation for future education.
https://www.science.co.jp/case/mitsubishielectric/manual/

Our website also features numerous case studies from other companies. If you are interested, please refer to this link:
https://www.science.co.jp/case/

This document clearly introduces five key points for creating a good manual. Please feel free to download and make use of it.
Related Materials: Five Key Points for a Good Manual

4. Summary

This time, we introduced the benefits of creating operation manuals and the key points for successfully creating manuals, including examples from our corporate clients. How was it? Please try creating an operation manual while keeping these points in mind.

"Even so, it is difficult to work on creating a business manual in parallel with regular duties." "If you are going to create it, it is recommended to have a professional handle it so that it can be used reliably."

By the way, we sometimes receive questions from our clients such as "Is it possible to create manuals for non-standard tasks?" The answer is "YES"! We believe that it is important to create manuals not only for standard tasks, but also for non-standard tasks.

Human Science Co., Ltd. has a proven track record of creating numerous manuals since 1985. We are a group of professionals specializing in creating business manuals. We can provide comprehensive support from organizing current issues, devising improvement strategies, to creating customized manuals. If you have any difficulties with creating business manuals, please feel free to consult with us.
https://www.science.co.jp/document/index.html

Features ①: Extensive track record of manual creation for large and global companies
Human Science has a track record of creating manuals for 243 companies and 3148 projects, mainly in the manufacturing and IT industries. Our clients include well-known companies such as DOCOMO Technology, Inc., Yahoo Japan Corporation, and Yamaha Corporation.

Feature ②: Investigation and Analysis by Experienced Consultants ~ Output
The creation of operation manuals will be handled by the experienced consultants at Human Science. Our skilled consultants will propose easy-to-understand operation manuals based on their extensive experience and provided materials. It is also possible to create manuals even without existing materials. The assigned consultant will conduct interviews and create the manual.

Feature 3: Not only manual creation, but also support for implementation
Human Science Co., Ltd. is responsible for the important phase of "implementation" after manual creation. For example, even after manual creation, we will continue to update the manual and hold manual creation seminars. We approach the implementation of manuals in the field by implementing various measures.

Thank you for reading until the end.
I would be happy if this blog could be a hint for creating business manuals.