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Something we run into as we educate companies about the power of digitized procedure content and the benefits thereof is this idea that if procedures are PDF’d and stored on a network drive, that’s enough to check the box that procedures are in fact “digital” and therefore no action is needed.

Why is the word “digital” so important? It carries weight because most industrial companies are ploughing ahead with digital transformation efforts to make their businesses more efficient, more productive, automated, and rich with data that can be used to measure improvements to processes, mandates, and production goals.

It’s easy when upgrading procedures to focus in on one or two areas. Mobility is hot right now and will continue to gain popularity as companies digitize their plants and enable Wi-Fi in the production areas.

However, it’s easy to get drawn into the idea of getting off the “paper paradigm” that has been in effect for the last 100 years without first understanding what that entails.

Want to figure out a way to take more control of your procedure content and extend your procedures to mobile devices? You’re going to need to digitize the content or in other words convert your procedures to a digital format. While there is no silver bullet to instantly and automagically make this happen, we will explore proven methodology to help make the journey easier, lower costs and achieve desired success.

Before jumping into the details of conversion or digital transformation, let’s review the benefits and why you would want to do this in the first place.

One of the most salient business needs in today’s world is seamlessly interconnecting two or more systems to allow business processes to flow effectively and efficiently. Most enterprise business systems are equipped with a configurable REST API making interoperability and data flow control possible.

However, as the cliché statement goes, the devil is always in the details. Most of the details involve knowing your data flow and understanding where, why, and how processes will be spawned and what other processes they should spawn through their journey.

Procedure use and adherence comes up often with potential customers when discussing ways procedure programs are managed. Many do not know what a use and adherence policy is, much less if their organization has one. Sometimes leaders will verify their organization has one, but no one has read it.

The state of procedures in the process manufacturing industry is poor compared to other industries such as nuclear and aerospace. There are many reasons for this, but the root cause mostly stems from an industry that is satisfied with minimal compliance of process safety management regulations rather than an obsession for operational excellence. Human reliability and the limitations of paper-based technology vs the availability of digital technologies are other key factors.

Connected worker technologies have changed the way manufacturing companies do business. The ability to digitize paper documents, and digitalize the processes surrounding the execution of those documents increases the efficiency of their workers, as well as their safety. Companies can now work more efficiently and safely than ever before.

It has been my personal experience that the average procedure writer in the processing industry often would rather eat flies than spend all day formatting documents.

Very talented subject matter experts with tons of operating experience just don't get excited about trying to get Word to cooperate when they insert text or attempt to renumber, and then watch the procedure decompose.

Computers are dumb. Very dumb. They still wait on us to make decisions for them! On the other hand, they are very useful for certain functions that humans don't do very well, or at least, don't like to do (unless you are king-nerd and have nothing better to do!)

Procedures... Art, science or black magic? If you manage, write or care for procedures, this stuff's for you, and I want to get your opinions and experiences.

How do you train operators on your procedures? Many companies provide a hard copy or electronic copy of the hard copy and have the learner either read it, or, if launched by a typical learning management system open and close it to get credit. In either case, it is doubtful that much learning took place in either case.