AiroQue / Services / Work Instructions (SWI / VWI)
Service 09
Work Instructions — SWIs & VWIs
Instructions are only controls if someone uses them. AiroQue writes standard and visual work instructions for the workstation — at the reading level, photo density, format and language your floor actually needs.
1.0 Standard
The test is whether it gets opened
Work instructions fail in a recognizable way. They are written by someone who already knows the job, for a reader who does not, and they skip the parts that are obvious to the author — which are exactly the parts that go wrong. Then they are printed, put in a binder, and the job is learned by watching someone else.
An instruction that is used has a few properties: it is in the sequence the work is performed, it names the tooling and settings rather than implying them, it says what “good” looks like at each checkpoint, and it fits at the station without being folded twice.
What goes into each instruction
Setup
Tooling, fixturing, program or recipe identification, machine settings, material and consumables, and anything that must be verified before the first part.
Sequence
Steps in performance order, each doing one thing, with the process parameters that matter stated at the step where they apply rather than collected in a preamble.
Checkpoints and acceptance
Where the operator verifies, what they check, against what criterion, and what gets recorded — cross-referenced to the Control Plan so the two documents cannot drift apart.
Reaction
What to do when the check fails, at the level of detail the operator can act on without leaving the station to find out.
Control
Revision identification, approval and effectivity, in the format your document-control process expects.
- Deliverable
- Standard or visual work instruction, revision-controlled, priced per document
- Typical inputs
- Routing, drawing, existing instructions, process parameters, photographs or access to photograph the operation
- Formats
- Single-page station sheets, multi-page SWIs, photo-led VWIs, laminated floor copies, tablet-viewable PDFs, ERP-embedded text
- Starting price
- $500 per document
- Scales with
- Step count, photo and annotation work, parameter complexity, translation requirements
- Aligns with
- Control Plans and Inspection Plans
- Revision support
- Reissued on process or engineering change; photo sets updated when tooling changes
Visual instructions
Where the work is visual — orientation, seating, routing, sequence, appearance of a good joint or coating — photographs with annotation carry more than a paragraph does. AiroQue can work from photographs you supply, or specify the shots needed so someone on site can take them.
2.0 Types
Documents in this service
Manufacturing-facing
- Standard Work Instructions (SWIs)
- Visual Work Instructions (VWIs)
- Manufacturing and process instructions
- Setup and changeover sheets
- Operator-facing station documentation
- Tool and equipment requirement callouts
Inspection-facing
- Inspection instructions
- In-process checkpoint documentation
- Acceptance criteria with visual references
- Recording and record-form instructions
- Reaction instructions at the point of check
- Revision-controlled documentation packages
3.0 Tailoring
Written for the people at the station
This is the deliverable where tailoring matters most, because the audience is the least forgiving and has the least time.
Your floor, your format
AiroQue asks how instructions are consumed before writing any: printed and laminated, on a tablet, on a screen at the cell, or pulled from the ERP with the traveller. Format follows that answer.
Reading level and language
Written plainly, with sentence length and vocabulary matched to your workforce. Bilingual side-by-side or separate-language issues where that is what the floor needs.
Photo density
Text-led with a few reference images, or photo-led with a picture at nearly every step. Denser visuals cost more to produce and are worth it for high-turnover or highly visual work.
Physical format
Single-page station sheet, booklet, laminated card, tablet-friendly PDF, or content structured for your ERP or MES so operators see it where they already look.
Terminology
Your names for tools, fixtures, machines, stations and departments — including the informal names people actually use, where those are unambiguous.
Callouts and warnings
FOD, ESD, torque, handling, safety and cleanliness callouts placed where your plant conventionally puts them, at the step they apply to.
Document control
Header blocks, numbering, revision identification, approval fields and effectivity formatted to match the rest of your controlled documentation exactly.
4.0 Adjacent services
Related documents
Instructions nobody opens?
Send one existing instruction and the operation it covers. AiroQue will rewrite it as a sample so you can judge the format before committing to a set.