To all technetters:

I am curious as to the kinds of software packages that folks use to generate
work instructions for the shop.

By work instructions, I'm referring to a document that is considered to be
"under control".

This is the format that we use..........

We have a cover page which lists the part number being built, the revision
of the document, the revision of the bill of materials for the part being
built and a listing of the revisions of each page in the document.

The second page is a History page which gives all of the revisions made to
the document, the pages affected at the time of the revision and a brief
description of what the reasons were for the changes made.

The third page is an advisory page which informs the operator of general
information about the item being built. The information speaks to ESD
requirements, which internal documents (Engineering Instructions) apply, any
Special Tooling Requirements, the specification to which the item is built
(J-Std-001, NHB, etc etc),  and any other cautions which the operator needs
to know about.

The fourth page (depending on the program) is reserved for a flowchart which
indicates the operations that the item will be processed through.

The subsequent pages have the instructions for how the item needs to be
assembled. Each page is numbered and has a revision. The revision of the
page is also indicated on the cover sheet.  Each instruction has an
operation number and a workcenter associated with it for timekeeping
purposes. On "commercial" jobs, the operator merely signs off completion of
the whole operation on a routing card which accompanies the unit. On
"non-commercial jobs" there is a "Controlled" sign off sheet where the
individual steps within the operation are signed off as they are completed
then the operator also stamps off the routing card.

At the end of the instruction pages,  the current bill of material is
provided.

The remaining pages are reserved for data recording purposes such as part
traceability, sign off sheets for step completion within the operation and
inspection checklists.

Unit testing information is provided on a separate document formatted in a
similar fashion.

Believe it or not we're still using good ol' Word Perfect 5.1. (OK, you can
stop laughing now) The reason why we're still using it is primarily due to
familiarity. Secondly, the old package handled graphics quite well. We have
tried a number of conversions into various versions of Word  and Word
Perfect without much success.

Questions...

1) If you have to have a document structure of a similar nature, what
software package works well for you ?
2) Anybody out there make a conversion from Word Perfect 5.1 to another
package ?
3) (Optional) What kind of work instructions do you give to shop floor folks
? (Do you throw 'em a print and say "go to it, good luck ?!?")
4) Any recommendations or observations?

Any and all responses will be deeply appreciated.


Bill Kasprzak
Moog Inc.

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