Reference no: EM13179762

TQM I just wanted to contribute some additional thoughts in regards to documentation. When I was visiting a warehouse in Zurich, Switzerland to observe how they were able to manage more then twenty thousand SKU's without a warehouse management system I was amazed to find that everyone in the facility knew exactly where everything was stored. There was absolutely no formal documentation on the facility layout or location of product anywhere.

All of the warehouse workers had worked there for at least twenty years. One of my key concerns was that the warehouse supervisor was getting ready to retire and there were large sections of the facility that only he knew where the items were located. Hopefully you can see how quickly a situation like that can deteriorate into a really bad situation.

Good documentation can help create more of a process dependency and less of a people dependency. The more knowledge is documented and shared the more sustainable and secure the process will be in the long term.

QUESTION: Have you ever observed a process that was too people dependent? What are some of the risks associated with that type of situation?

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