I left the last post describing a customer manual as a training program, with the piece of equipment representing a “department.”

So the question becomes, “what are the tasks that must be performed to keep the machine running and producing?” And from this, working with the subject matter experts, this list is assembled. For the time being, this list is created without consideration of who should or will do the task.

This may sound like a daunting task in and of itself, but the good news is the list is finite. Eventually, every task can and will be identified. This in turn becomes the focus of the manual or manuals. Any other information included in the manual is there to support task performance. If the information does not facilitate the successful operation of the product, it should not be there.

Now that the list is assembled, we will ask the question, “Who is the best person to perform this task?” This will be integral to the manner in which the manual information is arranged. And that we will discuss in the next post. Until then, thanks for reading. All comments may be fed directly to me at mrprocedure@gmail.com

Thanks for reading!