Standard Work - Standard Operating Procedure Development

Standard Work is a foundational continuous improvement process that establishes, documents, and maintains the most efficient, repeatable sequence of operations to eliminate variation, ensure consistent quality, and serve as the baseline for future improvements.

3 katas, in the order they are used. Each is free, open-licensed, and comes with a companion guide.

1. Step 1

   Standard work

   Work instruction

   Major steps, each with a key point for how to do it right and the reason it matters — the classic job-instruction shape, so a routing rule or a new process actually works the same way no matter who's running it.

   View guide →

2. Step 2

   Standard work

   Standard work audit

   Whether a work instruction is actually being followed weeks after it was written — the sustainment audit's shape, applied to standard work instead of a kaizen event.

   View guide →

3. Step 3

   Daily management

   Leader standard work

   A leader's own daily routine, in the same steps/key-points/reasons shape as a work instruction — what keeps a key performance indicator (KPI) tree, a training matrix, and a kaizen event's gains from quietly decaying once the excitement wears off.

   View guide →

Browse every kata or hand this playbook to an AI agent.