Operation of a company means execution of business processes. documentation is there to preserve and to develop the knowledge about those processes and therefore the core of the business. Why does it happen, that this documentation is outdated or incomplete? Is the core of the business not worth to be secured?
Looking at warehousing operations it depends, whom you ask about the frequency, if outdated documentation is evaluated to happen sometimes, regularly, or even in most of the cases. But why? Almost nobody argues against the value of documentation during the implementation of a new business in order to keep everybody aligned, trained and so on, but later? Is it not important anymore? It assures that the knowledge is kept. It required by governance models, certifications or just as a good practice. It is the basis for process improvements and this gets hopefully not just recognized in case of a major change or system migration or similar. So, the question remains, how can outdated documentation happen?
One of the reasons for sure is that writing of documentation is cumbersome and boring. Short-term even the value is limited and if there are time constraints …
So, if it gets missed to create the documentation right from the beginning, why does it not get resolved later on? Typically, if someone feels the need for the documentation, he or she looks at it, finds it outdated and creates a workaround, meaning a separate sketch, just for the current need and this is not seen as part of the documentation and gets forgotten later on. Next time same procedure again, wasted time and energy.
How can we do better? We know about the power of routine. How can we put the process documentation as part of the daily business? How can we benefit from the documentation on a daily basis? A control panel based on the process documentation as an idea? A flow diagram with real-time KPI ’s for the process steps. Impact analysis of any finding would be easier as the steps before and afterwards are clearly visible. This would provide benefit on a daily basis and as byproduct the documentation is checked implicitly and with that accuracy is promoted.
As illustration the sketch above, which indicates the throughput of a certain step as speed and backlog of tasks as range like in a cockpit of an electric car (plus some triangles and color coding for acceleration etc.). KPI’s and visualization can vary based on the individual case.