Learn from Case Studies! How to Break Free from Task Dependency through Manual Creation

3. Can Manuals Change Company Culture!? A Case Study of an Automobile Manufacturer

This is an inquiry from the quality assurance department of an automobile manufacturer.
The mission of the quality assurance department is to "support the operations of the design department." At that time, the lack of knowledge transfer from veteran engineers to younger staff was a challenge for the design department. With the urgent need to develop young talent, we wanted to document the know-how held by veteran engineers to facilitate technical transfer. However, it was difficult to ask busy engineers to create manuals, and they were looking for a company that could handle outsourcing.
It can be said that the "special nature of the work" in automobile parts design, along with the "lack of opportunities for information sharing," contributed to the situation of work becoming overly dependent on specific individuals.

As a result, we were able to achieve actual effects by advancing our efforts as follows.

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Below, we will explain the specific initiatives.

■Step 1: Understanding the Current Situation and Designing the Ideal State

First, we started with "Understanding the Current Situation."
At Human Science, we do not write manuals haphazardly. We prioritize understanding our clients' concerns and what they want to achieve through existing manuals, and we carefully consider the information and level of detail that should be included in the manuals, reaching an agreement with our clients. Neglecting this approach can lead to manuals being created solely based on the intentions of the production company, which does not contribute to solving the clients' problems.

We have progressed in understanding the current situation for this automobile manufacturer through the following initiatives.

●Evaluation and Analysis of Existing Manuals

We analyzed the manuals provided by our customers to understand what is unclear and why they are not being utilized.

▽Manual Evaluation Analysis Report

Our company analyzes manuals based on the following perspectives, understanding "for whom" and "for what purpose" they were created.

・Structure・Searchability
Reference: Tips for Creating a Table of Contents to Improve Manual Searchability and Escape from Not Being Able to Find What You Want
・Information Organization

・Design・Layout
Reference: What is a user-friendly manual design?

・Written Expression

In this customer's manual, a major issue was that it did not capture the reader's level of understanding.
For example, even if there is a step that says "investigate ~", without information such as "how to investigate?" or "will the results of the investigation be communicated to someone? Will they be documented and stored somewhere?", young engineers, who are the readers, will be at a loss. Without consideration for the reader, the conclusion becomes that "it's faster to ask someone," which leads to the manual not being adopted.

Of course, we have never been involved in automobile manufacturing as engineers, but from the perspective of a manual professional, we help identify the current issues with manuals. There are many aspects that can be noticed precisely because we are in an objective position that is not familiar with the business.

●Survey and Interviews with Design Department Members

While evaluating and analyzing the existing manuals, we also gathered feedback from members of the design department.
In this case, the quality assurance department raised the question, "Do the members of the design department even need the manuals?" Therefore, we conducted a survey with the following questions:
・Would you like to use a manual that summarizes the design procedures?
・In what situations would you like to use the manual?
・What kind of information would be good to include in the manual?
・What information is difficult to document and can only be taught verbally?　　etc.

▽Example of Survey Results

In particular, we received valuable feedback from the field on questions such as, "What kind of information should be included in the manual?" and "What information is difficult to document and can only be taught verbally?" This information serves as an important criterion for determining "what and how detailed we should ask/write" when interviewing clients about their operations or writing manuals.

Example of reflecting survey and interview results in the manual

■Step 2: Manual Creation

After understanding the current situation through both the evaluation and analysis of existing manuals based on a professional and objective perspective, and collecting feedback from design department members through surveys and interviews (gathering voices from the field), we began the manual creation process. The completed draft was then reviewed by the client from the perspectives of whether "the issues highlighted in the evaluation and analysis have been addressed" and "the opinions raised in the interviews and surveys have been reflected."
By conducting a "current situation assessment" and sharing it with stakeholders before starting the manual creation, the perspectives during the draft review become clearer.

After completing the first manual through this process, the client strongly expressed the desire to be able to write manuals themselves for future needs, and they began to promote in-house manual creation.
That said, it is difficult to become self-sufficient immediately. First, we decided to proceed with a division of roles as follows:
・Business organization: Client
・Turning organized information into a manual: Human Science

In the "Business Organization" process, we used our unique business organization sheet, and the progress was primarily driven by the customer.
Reference: Having just a template is not enough! The essential first step for a business manual

At this stage, I remember that communication among customers became very active. During the meetings, conversations among customers increased, such as, "For this process, I do it this way." "Oh, really? I was doing it like this." "Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages." In fact, it is common for the exchange of business information to be promoted during the process of creating manuals.

After that, based on the business organization sheet created by the client, we proceeded with the manual creation.
Even companies that are not familiar with manual creation can efficiently create manuals by sharing the process with professionals. We received the following feedback regarding the division of roles this time.

・By entrusting the key process of finalizing the manual to professionals, the quality of the manual has been ensured.

Business improvement activities such as manual creation tend to be postponed, but by having an external partner lead the way, we were able to proceed in a planned manner.

Currently, it seems that this customer is promoting the development of young talent through manuals.
"I want to change the company culture starting with the creation of manuals. While 'learning by watching' is good, if both the teachers and learners can communicate more with each other, it will further alleviate the personalization of work," they said, setting a high goal of "changing the company culture."

We have introduced a case study of an automobile manufacturer. How was it?
This was an initiative by our client that promoted internal communication and took a step towards breaking away from dependency on specific individuals through the creation of manuals.

4. Summary

The personalization of tasks can lead to skill disparities within departments and a decrease in operational efficiency. It is effective to start by creating and utilizing manuals, strengthening communication within the team, and supporting the skill development of members. This will help standardize and streamline operations within the department, ultimately improving overall departmental performance.
We hope that our manual creation methods can be of some assistance to your operations.