Your work instructions are ruining your productivity…

Yes, contrary to what you may believe giving detailed instructions to your employees may in fact paralyze your workflow. Let me explain…

Work instructions streamline your processes, when done properly. They need to be detailed, but with enough vagueness to allow for your employees to handle any deviations at their level.

Over reliance on work instructions to control your processes, instead of investing training into your employees to be able to handle deviations will eventually paralyze your company.

Employees will eventually rely more and more on the written instruction, to a point where they don’t think anymore.

When they stop thinking, you will be writing more and more detailed instructions.

The more detailed instructions the less your employees think.

It is a vicious circle…

The solution is to strike the right balance between detail and leave some room for maneuvering for your employees. They are your greatest asset and you don’t want them to stop thinking.

Also, train them in the skills that they may need to effectively handle situations as they arrive.

Problems will then be resolved at the floor level, not in the instructions. Making your processes more efficient.

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