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I’m part of a manufacturing company that makes a number of larger heavy-duty products. To give an idea of the complexity, we have CNC plasma cutters and hydraulic presses, saws, etc. but don’t use any real high-precision tools. Tolerances are normally “if it fits” and we don’t have any real documentation. We desperately need to document, standardize, and cut costs but don’t have any idea where to start. My initial thought was identify the assemblies and parts involved and then start from the top-down to create a set of instructions on each part and process. I figured a few iterations of this would eventually net a usable set of documentation.

What’s the preferred way of doing this? Where should we start, what do I need to identify, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated and please lmk if I can provide any more info.

Idk442
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It's actually not that complicated. You know how in the morning, everybody comes in the door and starts working on things? Well somehow they know what to do and how to do it, even though it's not written down. This is sometimes referred to as "tribal knowledge". Your goal is to record this.

Imagine a new technician comes in the door, with no instruction except your documentation. How do they do their job? What material do they load in the machine. Where is it? How do they load it? How do they operate the machine? How do they check the resulting part? Where do they put it?

How detailed you get for each of these steps is up to you, but I would focus mostly on the "subjective" steps. Like how to tell if a part is good or bad. There should be written instructions with clear criteria for this.

It is critical that you involve your technicians in this process. Don't make up your own new way of doing things. Start by documenting they way they already do it. It's tempting to think you'll do it better, but remember that they've been on the ground floor doing this for a long time and they usually do things a certain way for a reason.

Once you've written down all the key steps it will become much easier to see where time and effort can be saved.

Drew
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Assemble a Small Core Team. Include at least one person from each major function: welding, cutting, assembly, etc. Assign someone to lead the documentation effort (even if it’s unofficial). Start Small, choose a Pilot Product. Document the Bill of Materials (BOM). Add photos, note tools used (e.g., plasma cutter, press). Include general tolerances or “rules of thumb” used today. Identify tribal knowledge (what only the experienced guys know).

tepalia
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