STC Quality SIG Article: Assembly Line Production in Technical Communication

By Sunita Shelar, Senior Member, India chapter
Reprinted from Indus newsletter of the India chapter STC, September 2004

The concept of Assembly Line Production is not new. Henry Ford advocated this approach in automobile manufacturing more than half a century ago. The basic idea behind his most successful approach is that “Nothing is particularly difficult, if you divide it into small tasks.”

The Japanese automobile industry honed this idea by introducing the concept of ‘Just in Time’ (JIT). The idea behind JIT is that during the production process, the raw material arrives into the manufacturing unit at the precise moment and in the precise quantity that the technician requires it.

Many industries have successfully adopted these models to streamline their processes to simplify tasks, groom specialists, increase productivity, and develop an eye-for-detail.

The assembly line approach consists of three phases - Analysis, Planning, and Execution. The approach gets noticed during the Execution phase, though its success lies in proper Analysis and Planning.

Analysis constitutes the thinking process that involves:

Planning constitutes assigning the right person, at the right time, to:

Execution constitutes action by the assigned people to implement the plan.

Each step in the process needs special skill-sets. The advantage of the assembly line model is that the tasks, when broken-down, can be divided into skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled grades. Given time and with inclination, people can acquire the requisite skills to move to the next grade.

Can Technical Communicators adopt the Assembly Line approach?

Adapting the Assembly Line model to suit Technical Communication requires us to take a second look at the accepted Document Development Life Cycle (DDLC).

The DDLC spans the phases of Analysis, Design, Development, and Production. The Analysis phase consists of selecting the documentation approach, and developing the plan and schedule. The Design phase consists of information design and document layout. The Development phase consists of Information Analysis, Development (Draft), Review (peer, external), Rework (after each review cycle), and Final Freeze. The Production phase constitutes delivery of the documents in the agreed format.

Just as in the automobile industry, the Assembly Line approach for documentation gets noticed in the Development or Implementation phase. Its success however, is dependent on the Analysis and Design phase.

The standard practice today is that an author takes ownership of a manual or document and sees it through the entire life cycle. This approach helps the author acquire domain knowledge and feel a sense of accomplishment. It works well when time is not a constraint or if the author already has domain and tool expertise.

However, in today’s demanding business environment, Technical Communicators are being asked to produce more with less. One has to produce increased amounts of documents, in different formats, for varied audiences, with shrinking deadlines and an unskilled or semi-skilled workforce. In such a scenario, getting people enabled and producing quality documents with the fastest turn-around time is the need of the hour.

Breaking-down the Development phase

The matrix below shows the various tasks into which one can further break up the different stages of the Development phase and the domain or tool expertise required to accomplish the task.

Stage Task Expertise Required Experience
Information analysis Gathering information Domain expert Experienced doc resource
Information analysis Structuring information Domain expert Experienced doc resource
Information analysis Making information cohesive Domain expert Experienced doc resource
Technical review Reviewing analysis document Subject matter expert Non-doc resource
Rework after technical review Closing review comments received from subject matter expert Familiarity with domain Mid-experienced doc resource
Draft Taking coherent information and plugging-it into ready-made templates Familiarity with tool Novice doc resource
Peer review Formatting review Knowledge of formatting standards Novice doc resource with a good checklist
Peer review Editorial review Good language skills Novice doc resource
Peer review Technical accuracy review Domain expert Experienced doc resource
Rework after all peer reviews Closing review comments received from peers Familiarity with tool and standards Novice doc resource
External review Reviewing document Subject matter expert, testing, others Non-doc resource
Rework after external reviews Closing review comments received from external groups Familiarity with domain Mid-experienced doc resource
Final freeze Checking that all comments are closed, information is complete, flow of information is accurate, and other such tasks Domain expert Experienced doc resource

 

 

 

 

 

 

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As is evident from the above matrix, a lot of work can be accomplished using novice resources. The definition of a novice resource is someone who is new to the field of Technical Communication and has no knowledge of the domain or tools. The services of this resource can be efficiently utilized within a week of the person joining the team or as soon as the person gets familiar with the tool used to produce documentation. If the person is already familiar with the tool, the services of the person can be utilized from the day the person joins the team.

As novice resources start performing any of the tasks mentioned in the matrix above, they begin to get familiar with the domain and the standards followed by the team. It helps them move from performing novice tasks to little more complex tasks within 6 to 8 weeks. The transition from mid-experienced to experienced resource can happen as soon as 12 to 14 weeks, with an outer limit of six months. After this, resources can be utilized for the Design phase.

This is also where the Japanese technology of JIT comes into play. The novice resource should be provided with just enough information to perform a task, to avoid information overload. The following table explains the kind of information required to accomplish a task assigned to the novice resource in Technical Communication.

Stage Task Information required
Draft Taking coherent information and plugging-it into ready-made templates Use of templates and style sheet
Peer review Formatting review Formatting style checklist
Peer review Editorial review Style guide followed for language guidelines
Rework after all peer reviews Closing review comments received from peers Review comment list
Style guide to be followed for formatting and language guidelines

Advantages of the approach

The use of the Assembly Line approach in Technical Communication helps:

For ongoing and projects that span over six months this approach helps:

Although in the initial stages the Assembly Line approach appears to deliver the output faster, in the final analysis it produces better informed domain and process experts.

About the author

Sunita Shelar works with Infosys Technologies Ltd., Bangalore as a Principal Technical Communicator.