In today’s market, switching over to digital documents and instructions is just the most sensible option. They are much easier to share and update and can save you a lot of money that would normally go to the cost of printing and publishing your work. However, one of the lesser discussed benefits of digital documents is how much easier it is to format them. The benefits of using consistent guidelines for formatting documents, processes, and customized inputs in the screens and the systems that you use can help grow your company’s overall presence and streamline the communication process between you and your employees.
Consistent Formatting Creates Better Understanding
The most obvious reason that employers switch over to digital instructions is because they can be easily and consistently formatted which ends up saving them and their employees a tremendous amount of time. This is because the employees are spending less time trying to identify what the work instructions or records are telling them because they already know where to find all the information that they need. Once you make your formatting the same across all your work devices and documents, the reader learns how to acclimate to the layout of these documents and knows what to expect from these different sets of digital work instructions. So, no matter how long they have been with the company, the employees are still able to quickly find the title and main takeaways of these documents thanks to your new, consistently formatted digital work instructions.
Consistent formatting also keeps you and your employees on the same page when it comes to creating documents. When you have a set of digital work instructions or even a digital template that tells your employees exactly how to format their documents, your expectations for what to include become much clearer and more memorable for them. By streamlining the communication process this way, your employees will have a better understanding of your expectations.
Consistent Formatting Helps with Quickly Compiling Documents
Consistent formatting means that you will have all your documents and digital work instructions organized the same way, which makes their information easier to compile and find. It also means that you don’t have to spend all your extra time re-inventing the wheel. Once you have found a format that works well for your company, you can save it as a template, so you and your employees do not have to start from scratch with formatting whatever document you’re working on every single time. Not to mention, as you and your employees become more familiar with your formatting process, you will learn how to fill in the more obvious elements first thanks to that handy formatting template which will cut back on time, too.
Consistent Formatting Creates a Better Product
Consistent formatting creates an automatic set of specific guidelines that are easy for employees to follow and reproduce, which means you can create a more complete product no matter how you are using it. It helps to avoid missing information on reports, creates a more streamlined and identifiable presence for your company, produces a more cohesive product that anyone in the company can understand, and builds a strong sense of aesthetic. As you can see, consistent formatting boosts your company’s professionalism and saves you from some major work instruction-related headaches.
Consistent Formatting Makes It Easier to Find Errors
Since there is a clear template for employees to follow and use when creating documents or digital work instructions, mistakes jump out far more since they are not in line with the right format. If a word is out of place, a header is missing, or a graphic is not in the right spot, your employees will instinctively know just by the fact that the document won’t look right since visually it will not match the usual formatting for your company. This also makes proofreading much less time consuming for that very same reason. Instead of having to scour every section of the document for formatting errors, it will all be clearly seen in just a simple eye scan of the pages.
Creating a Consistent Format with Electronic Work Instructions
If you are ready to grow your company but need someone to help you create formatting guidelines and digital work instructions, check out Sequence Software. We are the work instruction software solution for the manufacturing enterprise needing work instructions that are collaboratively authored. Our real-time interactive interface means that you can easily improve your digital work instructions and get live feedback on them. Not to mention, our software is fully integrated with ERP, PLM, and MES, which means that your new digital work instructions and formatting guidelines will seamlessly transition with your company’s existing data and create hassle-free continuity for your workers. If you are ready to learn more, visit our website today and request a demo or check out some of the products we offer.
