Work instructions template

This scopes a set of work instructions before anyone picks up a camera. Enter the tasks, the steps per task, the photos or diagrams per step, the tools and materials listed per task, the safety warnings, the operators who will follow the instructions and the minutes it takes to learn a step, and the page returns the instruction sheets, the steps across the set, the images to capture, the tool lists and warnings to write, the training minutes across every operator and the pages at six illustrated steps a page. Work instructions are mostly pictures and time; this is how many of each.

One sheet per task, one action per step

A work instruction covers one task at one station for one operator, and each step is one action with the picture that shows it. Six tasks are six sheets; nine steps each is fifty-four actions. The page keeps the counts separate so a task that grows past a dozen steps is split into two sheets rather than becoming a manual.

The images are the work

A photo or a diagram on every step is what makes an instruction followable without training, and capturing fifty-four consistent images is most of the effort of the set. The page prints the image count from your steps and photos per step so that effort is visible before it starts, and so the sheets are shot in one session rather than drifting over months.

Tools and warnings at the step, counted per sheet

A tool named at the step where it is picked up and a warning at the step where the hazard is are read every time; a list at the top is read once. The page counts the callouts per sheet so they are written into the steps rather than appended. The training minutes across every operator sit beside them, because the sheet is also what the operator is trained against.