by Desiree Schnoor
The father of quality engineering speaks to the absolute cruciality of process, not only as a foundation but as a function of all work. He reminds us of the simple, yet profound truth that if what you are doing can’t be described as a process, then you aren’t really doing anything. But can we do better than “describing”? We are all familiar with the saying, “show, don’t tell”, so I wonder if Mr. Deming would agree that “showing” is better than “describing”? Enter Video Work Instructions. Now, you can forget about flipping through cumbersome, outdated, confusing paper manuals, that even when read diligently, have serious limitations. The long, subjective nature of text means confusion, inconsistency, deviation, errors and frustration. All these ultimately increase production time and errors. Text means employees work slower, harder, more expensively and less safely. Video Work Instructions are a powerful substitute- in fact, 1 minute of video equals 1.8 million words. Video Instructions are easier to understand, they are quickly visualized, and the entire process, from start to finish is realized in minutes, not tens or hundreds of pages. The ease of video means better understanding, replicability, consistency, less errors and greater confidence, now your technicians work faster, easier, cheaper and safer. With Video Work Instructions, the process being seen, not read, is only a part of its capability. The positive outcomes of using video instructions reach as far as increasing labor availability and reducing turnover. You be the judge, but something tells me Deming would approve.
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by Desiree Schnoor
No one can deny that time and experience equal expertise, and all those years, days and moments along the way are what shape what we really “know". But what if there was a way to expedite the time and experience needed for the same, or better results? Video Work Instructions perform like a canon that speeds over the time and experience chasm and lands firmly in solid results. Virtual QE is taking this concept to the manufacturing industry with applications for new hires, veteran technicians and managers alike. Manufacturing new hires are reaping the super-speed benefits of Video Work Instructions from the very beginning. Video and its effects revamps everything from their selection, hiring, training, productivity, work perceptions and job satisfaction. Video also allows expert technicians the platform and flexibility to record, store and disseminate their expertise for the benefit of an unlimited number of employees, an unlimited number of times. Managers can trace increases in labor availability, standardized best practices, quality and on time delivery, reduced turnover and even improvements to the auditing process to Video Work Instructions. Video Instructions have been used to chronicle how to perform periodic tasks, that only happen every few years, or to capture information pertinent to management and HR personnel and policy changes. by Desiree Schnoor
If you are a manufacturing company, we would guess that one of your biggest problems fall into one of these areas: labor availability, training, production, or audits. It might be inconceivable to think that these same problems could be turned from money wasters into you biggest profit-making areas. This might be especially true considering how much time, energy and money has been used at attempting to find solutions to these problems. Video Work Instructions to the rescue! Let’s take a look at how implementing Video Work Instructions can transform your old ways of “doing” labor availability, training, production, or audits, which wasted money, to new methods that will help you save or make money. Labor availability is the leading problem facing manufacturers today. Forget about the limited labor pool of qualified applicants, how much you have to pay the qualified applicants you can find, not being able to fill workstations, and worrying about your most experienced technicians’ upcoming retirements. Video Work Instructions are the one simple solution to all of those issues by providing a revolutionary way to close the skills gap from the “other side”. Tradition says qualified, skilled workers do highly skilled tasks, but Video Instructions automatically allow anyone to perform high skilled tasks, eliminating the need to be able to find, pay and keep highly skilled technicians, while maintaining quality, standardization and tribal knowledge. Training new and existing employees is usually costly and takes a long time. Video significantly reduces training time and increases training effectiveness. It also makes identifying and implementing cross training opportunities for employees seamless. Video brings new meaning to job flexibility by quickly allowing employees to train on new tasks much quicker and more effectively than long hours of learning from an expert. Video Work Instructions are launching continuous improvement opportunities and job satisfaction, while reducing turnover. Production improvements can be seen almost immediately upon implementing Video Work Instructions. Drastic increases in quality and yield save you time and money, as do reductions in waste and having to correct defective parts. With full workstations and workers who can perform multiple tasks, work is faster and standardized. You will find yourself being able to qualify for and bidding more and new jobs. While no one enjoys the auditing process, using Video Work Instructions makes compliance easier since video is document controlled. Keeping your documents up to date with current updates and revisions is also much easier with video. There are many effects of revamping the biggest money wasters into money makers with Video Work Instructions. Your company can reduce spending by reducing what and how much is outsourced, reducing payroll costs, waste and defects, so you have more to spend on growing your business in new ways. Improvements in the ways above may also give you a new presence and competitive advantage with both new and existing customers and employees. Internally, prospective employees will be drawn by new training methods and work instructions. And not only will you be producing work better and faster, for your customers, but you will be able to establish yourself as an industry leader, which may lead to better customer satisfaction, loyalty and ultimately more money. by Desiree Schnoor
Did you know that almost 1 in every 2 new hires will quit their job within a year, and of those who do quit, half of them quit quickly; within just 3 months of starting. This is a huge kick in the wallet to employers, who just spent substantial amounts of time and money training that new person, an average of 2 to 3 weeks, in fact. That trainer was probably pulled off of a revenue producing activity to train the new hire, who in just a few days would leave the company. Such staggering statistics demand a solution, and Virtual QE, a quality engineering company, offers a bold one. “Stop training your new employees.” Shawn Findlater, CEO, says. “At least, stop the old way, of long, expensive training programs. Video Work Instructions let you train a lot of new employees faster, cheaper and better.” Mr. Findlater is talking about the revolutionary training tool called Video Work Instructions, and their ability to turn traditional training on its head. Replacing traditional work instructions, video gives a faster, more effective, full-picture training tool to employees, who can perform tasks like pros, after watching experts perform the tasks. Companies see training speed, standardization, efficacy, safety and cost improved when using Video Work Instructions. But that’s not all. Video Work Instructions’ capabilities go far beyond new hire training and on-boarding, by making cross training seamless and fast. Video brings new meaning to job flexibility by quickly allowing employees to train on new tasks quicker and more effectively than long hours of learning from an expert. Video Work Instructions are launching continuous improvement opportunities and job satisfaction, and reducing turnover. by Desiree Schnoor
Carlos, the current Production Manager at Cidrenes bread company in Puerto Rico, started at the company many years ago- as a janitor. Despite studying telecommunications in school, he wanted to work for Cidrenes, so he took the job. Carlos quickly excelled in his role and was given the opportunity to spend the last two hours of each work day learning all he could about the pastry production line. For 2 years, Carlos trained himself, learning all he could, in case a position became available. Opportunity came knocking one afternoon when Carlos was taking over for the Quality Control Manager, who was out on vacation. Carlos had been cross-training with him for the past month and was able to take his place. It had come to his boss’s attention that Carlos’ quality and yield numbers were better than the Quality Control Manager. Carlos explained that when there is a problem on the production line, the Quality Manager stops production to try to solve the problem, he writes a report, and has to wait for someone to come fix the problem. Carlos, though, just fixes it himself, then writes the report. After getting demoted back to janitor because he didn’t have USDA certification, Carlos took classes, gained certification and officially became the Quality Control Manager. Carlos’ passion for cross-training didn’t stop once he got the position he wanted. In fact, a little while later, Carlos took a position driving the bread delivery truck, even taking a pay cut to do it. He explained he wanted to see for himself how much people loved the bread, he truly enjoyed talking to customers and store owners. One day, he was putting bread on the shelf at a store and he overheard a bakery worker complaining about their Cidrenes bread being ruined because it had proofed too long. Since Carlos had seen countless instances along his self-propelled cross-training journey, he had an idea about how to save the bread, and it worked. He saved the store almost $1000 worth of dough that day. An employee like Carlos is every company’s dream- competent, ambitious, and self- motivated to cross-train as much as he can outside of his current role. Joshua Schnoor, Business Development Manager at Virtual QE says, “The key to the success of any company is cross-training. We can’t give you Carlos, but we can provide Video Work Instructions- a way to instantly and efficiently cross-train all your employees to do expert level tasks correctly the first time.” Cross-trained employees have been shown to be more productive, efficient and motivated employees, with significant impacts both externally, including on-time delivery, and internally by improving your company culture and morale. |
authorDesiree Schnoor holds degrees in psychology and public health. Her interests lie broadly in health and well being. She spends the majority of her efforts and love on her husband and four children. She has used her communication skills in health education and promotion for a large wellness corporation, as well as starting a women's mentoring program. She is utilizing her skill set at Virtual QE to convey the "quality of life" aspects of quality engineering. Archives
May 2019
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