PRODUCT MANUALS DEFINED

As a manufacturer or marketer, you may currently be contemplating what documentation your product will need. Depending on how complex your product is, and whether it’s designed for a consumer or commercial customer, you might need to produce only one manual, or a complete suite. Here is a suggested list of manuals, and what they should contain.

Quick Start Guides may be part of a User Manual or a standalone piece. Appropriate to both consumer and commercial equipment or software, they tell the user how to operate the basic controls and make the product work. They may also touch briefly on more advanced functions so that the reader can try them out. Some one-page guides are virtually “wordless”, using illustrations, numbers and arrows to show how to connect components together or work through setup menus.

Installation Manuals (other than software) are typically used by a manufacturer’s field service/installation personnel or factory-trained subcontractors. They are written for specialized commercial equipment such as medical scanners, boiler equipment or a recording studio mixing console, to name just a few examples. Calibration and customer acceptance procedures could also be included.

User Manuals are intended to give in-depth instruction for the proper operation of the equipment, but might include assembly information. An example of this would be a barbeque manual. User manuals should include safety warnings, either at the beginning and/or at specific points in the manual where they apply. Manuals for commercial equipment will be written for an educated audience with training in a particular field. Simple troubleshooting and minor maintenance information are often included. A monograph published by pharmaceutical companies to instruct doctors in the application of a particular drug could be another type of user manual.

Service Manuals are written for factory-trained personnel. They should contain safety information, particularly where electric shock, crushing, chemical or any other hazards may arise when servicing equipment. More often than not, they contain troubleshooting guides, exploded mechanical drawings and/or schematic diagrams (for example: hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical or electronic). Removal and replacement procedures for failed subassemblies are written and illustrated in detail. Calibration or alignment procedures could also be outlined as a follow-up to the replacement of a subassembly.

Overhaul and Maintenance Manuals should include instructions for performing preventive maintenance such as lubrication procedures or calibration checks). They should contain the same kind of safety information as service manuals. They may go one step further than service manuals by providing instructions for corrective maintenance (removal, overhaul & replacement) for failed subassemblies, down to the component replacement level. They may include troubleshooting charts, as well as calibration and alignment procedures.

This is by no means a strict guideline for producing your manuals, but it should provide a sense of what each type of manual typically includes. Once you decide to start on your documentation, use a technical writer who can work with your team to effectively communicate this information to the intended audience. Poorly written or formatted manuals will do harm to your company’s reputation and may leave you open to liability. Plan your manuals early in the design phase to ensure you have them available when the product ships.

PRODUCT MANUALS - WHO'S MAKING YOURS?

Does this scenario sound familiar? Marketing has customers lined up to take the first shipments, engineering says they’re almost finished tweaking the final design and manufacturing is now starting to run prototypes through its process.

Business as usual: customers are waiting and everyone is scrambling to get a working, reliable product out the door. There are hurdles galore to overcome, including electromagnetic compatibility testing, regulatory approvals, development of in-house test programs and export clearances.

Through this organized chaos, some key activities get pushed to the bottom of the heap. Chances are, one of these is the production of manuals. In most cases, this function should largely fall upon the shoulders of the product designers. After all, they, better than anyone, should be able to describe how to install it, use it, maintain it and fix it. But wait! These are the people who are under the gun to get the product on the shipping dock. How are they going to find the time to write, illustrate and format a set of manuals?

There are three approaches that can be taken to get the technical documentation delivered with the product:
1. Designate an employee or hire someone to be an in-house technical writer. For this to work, the individual has to be dedicated to the task, and be able to talk to and understand engineers. Usually, they have a technical background themselves as well as prior technical writing experience.
2. Bring in an experienced contract technical writer either directly or through an agency. This individual works on-site, and for all intents and purposes is a temporary employee. There is an understanding that the individual is being hired for a defined period of time and works from a company-supplied space using company equipment. Agencies typically pay the individual an hourly rate plus benefits, then invoice the company at marked-up hourly rates.
3. Subcontract a technical writing firm that will work on-site as needed to gather information, but will typically work off-site to produce the finished manuals. They may have several people, such as writers and illustrators that they can parse work out to as needed to ensure it is completed on time. Hourly rates with a ceiling on total cost or fixed project milestone costs are negotiated before work commences.

Which works best? It all depends on your company’s circumstances. Larger organizations can afford to hire full-time writers, knowing that if circumstances change, severance costs can be covered. Similarly, they may not be deterred by high hourly rates that agencies charge, given the convenience of having someone else take care of administering benefits and payroll deductions. For medium and small companies, using a technical writing firm may be a better solution, because there is no commitment to continue using them if circumstances change. Nor is there a requirement to provide them with on-site office space or equipment, or pay benefits.

Delivery of technical manuals is often written into purchase contracts, or is a legal requirement due to safety information that they contain. As much as they seem to be a roadblock to getting a product to market, they must be addressed seriously. Don’t leave the planning or implementation of manual writing tasks until the design is complete. That’s too late! Even if the design is fluid, manuals can be “revved up” as needed and re-issued.

Plan to have resources available to work with the writer throughout the process. Bolster your resources if necessary to make that happen. People have a way of getting too busy when the crunch hits, forcing the writer to stop work. The last thing you want to have is product that can’t ship because the manuals aren’t ready.