Business is all about doing the best you can with the resources you have. When a business is small these resources are normally limited, and in my opinion decisions made by the governing group can be a lot tougher than a larger operation. There is little buffer and the effect of any decision can have large consequences for the company.
There is quite often a trade off between priorities, you are willing to accept a slightly lower quality in one area of the business due to cost to have the very best quality in another. In this last year we have been focusing on product development, making sure our production line is secure, everything is documented and quality is increased. We have tried to do as much of our website / technical information as possible, not as high quality as a professional - "trade off".
However, we have achieved what we wanted with our product design and have ended up with a more consistent product & quality. We also have some really cool 3D models of the ovens to share with our clients but hit a snag, the models could be fully deconstructed meaning everyone would have access to our design.
I have been trying to work out how to turn the designs into videos without jeopardising our product and at minimal cost, who knows where we are going to end up with COVID. This involved trolling websites, searching for a solution with no success until last Thursday I was waiting on line for a meeting to begin where I was going to share my screen for a training session. I discovered that Zoom is the perfect tool to solve my problem, this is what I can do:
Open up the drawing / 3D model
Set up a meeting on Zoom but don't invite anyone
Share my screen to the drawing / 3D model
Start recording in Zoom, then click on my 3D model to start its rotation.
When complete, Stop recording and do the same with the next oven.
End the meeting and both videos are sent to me
The videos of course have all the menu details on it so I used the app VivaVideo to trim the videos and zoom in. One hour later after a bit of mucking around I have 2 videos to load to the website and I am pretty happy with the result. Check them out here.
This process has opened up opportunity in regards to process mapping. It is not that easy to map from home, I am finding it harder to catch people and many people just don't feel comfortable. I am a big believer that there are many ways to get a job done and this provides people with an option that they can just do their job, recording it as they go via Zoom then send me the recording, I can take it from there. Not only is it not interrupting their day but I see everything they do, I can go back without interrupting them again and I could possibly use parts of the video if required.
My world has opened up just a little bit more and potentially the cost of the mapping business processes is reduced. If you are interested in getting some process mapping done, think about this and give me a call.