Shelfware (was Simply)

[<neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>]

Dori Green wrote
 
> I'm sitting here visioning me trying to convince my boss to invest in cologne for our plant floor work instructions.  He might go for it if there is any hope that it might encourage people to read the ^(&&*(%^^ things.
> 
> We tried assembling excellent "dossier" binders.  Labor-intensive with pages inserted into plastic protector sheets individually, but things of beauty nevertheless.  There was no management follow-up or enforcement and they quickly turned into shelfware.

I'm in a similar situation, but a bit earlier in the game, so I
am trying to avoid making shelfware. There was work on some SOPs
a few years ago, and they are fat, useless, and buried. The key
to success seems to be management committment, but it's also
helpful to get the intended users highly involved. As I tell the
guys who are helping me put together the new SOPs, "If you aren't
working on making it what it should be, if you don't see it as
solving a problem for you, there's no sense in the company paying
me to write it." I could build a four-inch thick SOP manual in
just a day (ain't lorem ipsum wunnerful!) as long as its only
purpose was to be an entry in some stupid checkoff list. "Yup.
We've got a SOP manual for the Fensternaegel project. There it
is on the shelf, and yes, it's dated May, 2007."

--Peter Neilson

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