JD Owner Manual vs Product

[9973720wb19]

I've owned 5 JD machines and currently have 4...from walk behind mower to a 4720. My experience has been that there are various sections of the manual that are inaccurate with the model...from dash display modes, operations, and maintenance. When I get a new machine, I find myself calling the dealer to determine if something is missing or if it's working correctly. What should my unit have and how should it work? What right...what's in the manual or how it is? Why can't Deere produce correct manuals with each model?

 

[greg_g]

Rhetorical questions I assume (?)

//greg//

 

[rekees4300]

"Why can't Deere produce correct manuals with each model?"

That's a good question. My guess is that they create the manual based on the initial specs for a model then, after manufacturing, problems are discovered that require design changes which in turn make the manual incorrect. In a perfect world all the previously published manuals would be updated to reflect the design changes but realistically I can see that it would be very difficult and expensive to do that.

 

[om21braz]

IMHO - I've always thought they were very good - although not perfect. This coming from a JX75, 325, f710 and a 4120. I've looked at a few other brands that were not close in detail to Deere manuals.

 

[megaboz]

Well, my evaluation of the 2520 manuals is that if you know everything about tractors, maybe they are good, but for someone who is new to JD, they are horrible.

 

[CurlyDave]

Have you ever tried to get a good manual written?

As a guy who used to lead teams that built really exotic hardware, I often had to try to get someone to write a manual for some of the things we built. The manual is always written after the engineering is completed and production is about to start.

Your first problem is that good engineers are not usually good writers, and to compound the issue they all hate writing more than half a page with a profound passion. I have seen guys procrastinate on writing a manual for over a year. Plus they are much more valuable as engineers than technical writers. So the good engineers, who actually designed the equipment move on to other projects where they can be engineers.

This leaves you with a pool of lower quality engineers and new hires to write the manual. Throw out the ones where English is a second language and the pickings get mighty slim.

So you assign the best candidate and keep his/her nose to the grindstone. In a month or two you have to start delivering manuals, and faced with this deadline, any passable effort is considered "good enough". As the project manager, I would usually spend a week or so editing it, and trying to have it make some sense, but a very real problem is that a good editor doesn't understand the technology and a real writer is even more baffled by it. So, the writing and the editing are done by people who are ill-suited for the work and don't particularly like it.

This is how operating manuals, especially for newer models end up "lacking in polish."

Once a model has been around for 10 or more years, enough junior engineers have had a whack at revising the manual so it might actually get pretty good.

* * * * * * *

Now don't delude yourself into believing that the process I describe is "poor management". For the past two or three years a manager might have been able to hand an engineer a manure fork and tell him to start shoveling, but in a good economy any engineer who understands a complex machine, like a tractor, is valuable enough to quit and get a new job if you make his life difficult. And, if he is both a good engineer and a good writer his value is even higher.

 

[om21braz]

Have you ever tried to get a good manual written?

Overall, an excellent description of the process CurlyDave! At least on a tractor, the person buying the machine usually takes time to read the manual. I know companies that have bought million-dollar machines and never pay one bit of attention to the manual until something goes wrong.

 

[RoyJackson]

This leaves you with a pool of lower quality engineers and new hires to write the manual.

Man!! That hurt my feelings, Dave!!

In my experience (QE here), it was the job of the tech writer (who was frequently a manufacturing engineer, but occasionally a quality engineer or industrial engineer...but there are those who make their living doing technical writing only) who had to translate the engineering instructions into something non-engineers (production workforce or the consumer) could understand.

One of the more difficult aspects (I would imagine as my tech writing was for in-house use) of writing and revising manuals is to ensure the consumer gets the latest revisions. That isn't too difficult when a document is used within the bounds of a company but can be virtually impossible when it's for a consumer product.
The only industry I've been involved in that had good follow through with manual revisions was aerospace.

 

[sunnyside360]

In addition to all the above, a good company like John Deere will do product improvements and cost reductions way past when the product was released and it may take a while until manuals are updated if ever. For example, look at the 4X20 tractor series. I had one of the early models and a more recent model. There are differences in rims, FEL hydraulics, 3PH, dash controls, HP, and etc. Few if any of the changes are shown in later manuals.

 

[beenthere]

CurlyDave and sunnyside explained it very well, IMO.
I found some errors in my JD 4300 operators manual, but they were page switches that didn't make sense. The tech manual has been quite good, and have not found errors. Nor have I found error's in the other Deere products (425, 445, 455, Gator, Buck) operator manuals.
Manuals are tough to write for the greenhorn's (lost on where their answer might be), tough to write for those who are knowledgable about the product (they see the omissions), and as well stated, don't have the attention the manuals should have (don't get the user involved in the editing and proofreading stages).