While I too am having a hard time following what it is that is really being asked, it appears to focus on the lack of "connectedness" of the various silos of information that exist within a manufacturing company and some lack of understanding of the architecture of these systems so that conduits...
Hi XaeroR35 -
In full disclosure, I am with one of the several OTS solutions that show up in the above-mentioned Google search for "work instruction software." While you are correct, no OTS solution is going to do everything that everyone is looking for, we have 10 years of experience working...
Hi Frusso110 -
I too worked at a small but very high-tech engineering / manufacturing company at one point in my life and was forced to wear a lot of hats. The most important thing that I learned from my time there was hit on by several earlier great posts and that was I had to find a way to...
Collaborative enterprise versions will have multiple-author capabilities as well as rigorous version tracking but don't allow on the fly editing without a license and appropriate privileges within the software. I can appreciate the idea of an open environment which encourages participation but...
Are there constraints which prevent you from moving to or purchasing a solution as opposed to using a wiki (other than not having an infinite budget)? There are several database packages on the market (from free to enterprise) that are designed specifically for authoring, managing and deploying...
A recent economic outlook survey from IHS / Globalspec indicated that the top areas of focus for industrial / manufacturing companies related to the engineering profession are (in order)
1. Entering new markets;
2. New product design & development;
3. Researching future products;
4. Reduce...
Hi Fighterpilot -
A couple of questions to put some boundary conditions on the problem. First, are you confined by budget and or other constraints from investigating a paperless solution? There are several database packages on the market that offer paperless deployment options which greatly...
Hi ZWG -
Regarding the work instruction piece of this, there are several solutions on the market these days that get you into a scalable database solution that are relatively expensive or even free in some instances. In full disclosure, I work for one of these organizations but try to...
@dgallup -
In full disclosure, I work for one of the software companies that provides such a solution but try to provide information on forums such as this in a noncommercial manner. The most commonly seen packages (in alphabetical order) can be found at
www.proplanner.com...
If you want to get around the formatting issues, there are now commercially available packages (free to enterprise) designed to allow rapid knowledge capture for work instructions and SOPS with text and images through a functionally specific user interface and then autoformat the information in...
What to include in shop floor work instructions is largely a matter of audience and complexity of task as well as regulatory requirements. In many environments, pictorial based work instructions consist only of "standard work." These type of instructions typically involve 4-5 steps described...
