Why Manuals Left on the Shop Floor Become Trash
Personal dependency can be broken down into three parts
── Perception, Judgment, and Execution: Where does the dependency lie?
In previous articles, I have written about
why personal dependency arises and what is happening on the front lines.
This time, I will change the perspective a little.
It is about
breaking down "work that has become personally dependent" into its structure.
Why do discussions about personal dependency never seem to align?
When the topic of personal dependency comes up, it usually goes like this:
Young employees aren't developing
Management is weak
Motivation is low
However, this discussion rarely makes any progress.
The reason is simple:
because personal dependency is being treated as a single lump.
In actual practice,
the content of work that has become personally dependent can be broken down much further.
Work is made up of "three phases"
Having observed work on the front lines,
there is a perspective I have always used when performing error analysis and improvements.
That is,
Perception → Judgment → Execution
as a flow.
This is not about willpower.
It is a highly practical breakdown
for identifying exactly "where errors are occurring."
Perception: Are they even noticing it in the first place?
Perception is
whether or not you can notice if something is normal or abnormal.
Knowledge is always involved here.
What to look at
What is important
Which state is abnormal
Without knowing this,
people cannot perceive an abnormality as an abnormality.
The more experienced a person is, the more they perform this perception unconsciously.
Therefore, they cannot explain 'what they are looking at to make a judgment'.
That is precisely why
it is difficult to put into words.
However, that is
a perception that only those who understand can understand .
Judgment: Is there a standard, or is it based on intuition?
Next is judgment.
Judgment is
deciding what to do based on the perceived information .
What is important here is
whether or not there are clear criteria for judgment.
Determined by numerical values
Branching based on conditions
Defined as a procedure
If such criteria exist,
judgment does not depend on the person.
Conversely,
Somehow
The usual feeling
In my experience
When such judgments are being made,
that environment is structurally forced to rely on specific individuals.
Even when things can be quantified,
there are actually workplaces where individuals make judgments based on intuition, like an artist's creative process.
This is
not because they are 'talented', but
simply because the structure is not in place.
Execution: Even if you judge correctly, you may still fail
The last part is execution.
In the execution phase,
the judgment is correct
you know what needs to be done
Even so, errors occur in the action.
This is because
the work is complex
there are many steps
there are too many points to watch out for
and so on, resulting ina structure where the action itself is prone to failure.
If you dismiss this as 'lack of attention',
improvement will never progress.
Reliance on specific individuals changes its nature depending on the 'location'
As we have seen so far, reliance on specific individuals is,
is it dependent on cognition?
is it dependent on judgment?
Does it depend on execution?
The nature of it is completely different depending on that.
Nevertheless,
let's create a manual
let's strengthen training
Because we implement uniform measures like these,
we end up in a state where 'nothing changes even if we do it'.
The first thing you should do is
identify where things depend on people.
Standardization only has meaning once things can be broken down.
Standardization is
not about creating rules.
It is about breaking down work,
what is not being seen
what is not being judged
what is not being executed
and only after organizing these does it take shape.
If you proceed with standardization without being able to break things down,
it is natural for the shop floor to show a rejection reaction.
Next time preview
Next time,
using this 'cognition, judgment, and execution' breakdown,
why does judgment keep concentrating on individuals?
why are standards not created?
I will dig one level deeper into that structure.
Reliance on specific individuals is not a people problem.
It is a structural problem.