Is everyone on your team doing it the same way?
If this depends on who trained them – you don’t have a training system.
You have a tradition of watching whoever’s available.
GembaDocs gives every new hire, every operator in cross-training, and every team covering an absence the same reference – the documented procedure, on their phone, at the point of work. Same standard, every time.
The SOP is the training you need.
GembaDocs is the trainer.
A step-by-step procedure with photos or video at each step, accessible on any phone, at any workstation, without a login. When a new hire follows an SOP at the machine, they are being trained to the documented standard – not to the memory of whoever is covering them that day.
New hire training
New starters follow the SOP. Each step shows a photo of what it should look like. Each critical step is flagged. When they’ve worked through the procedure, they’ve been trained to the standard – not to someone’s interpretation of it. The experienced operator shadowing them watches for questions and exceptions instead of narrating every step.
Cross-training
Absence cover
Cross-training only works if the procedure is written down. With GembaDocs, it already is. The person being cross-trained follows the SOP. The trainer verifies they can do it with our [Skills module]. The training record is updated. When cover is needed, the team member who can step in is documented, not assumed.
Every operations team has someone whose knowledge is irreplaceable.
The technician who has run the machine for twenty years.
The supervisor who knows every quirk of the production line.
The operator who can do the startup sequence in the dark because nobody else has ever needed to learn it.
Document while doing.
The same standard, every shift, every person.
Once the procedure is documented, training to it is consistent by definition. The machine setup that produces the same output regardless of who runs it. The documented standard removes the dependency on any one person.
See exactly who's trained on what.
And where the gaps are.
GembaDocs SOPs create the training material. The Skills module tracks whether people have actually been trained on it.
Together, they close the loop between “we have a procedure” and “we know everyone can follow it.”
- A live skills matrix linked to your SOPs.
- Sign-off on the floor, on a phone.
- Track external training in the same place.
- Expiry alerts before the audit finds them.
Time saved creating training materials...
Before GembaDocs
1-4 hrs
to write one SOP
After GembaDocs
5-30 mins
to write one SOP
Before GembaDocs
3 hrs
to write one SOP
After GembaDocs
10 mins
to write one SOP
Before GembaDocs
2 hrs
to write one SOP
After GembaDocs
10 mins
to write one SOP
Sound familiar?
- New hires spend their first week following someone around - and pick up a slightly different process depending on who they're with
- Cross-training is on the plan, but it never quite happens because the procedure isn't written down anywhere
- Someone is retiring or leaving in the next few months and their knowledge isn't documented yet
- You have training records somewhere - a spreadsheet, a binder - but nobody's updated it since it was first set up
- When someone's off sick, you find out too late whether anyone else on the team knows how to cover their job
