Industrial Training, Documentation & Work Instructions worked example

Work Instruction Creation Load at 18% review, revision, and approval allowance: a worked example

Here is what the math looks like when conditions slip. We hold every other input steady and drop review, revision, and approval allowance to 18%, then walk the calculation through step by step. Estimate the total labor hours required to create a batch of new work instructions, accounting for the number of documents, average writing time per document, and review and approval overhead.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Work instructions to create: 25 documents (held at the documented default)
  • Average authoring time per instruction: 8 hr / document (held at the documented default)
  • Review, revision, and approval allowance: 18 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 25)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Base authoring hours = number of work instructions x average authoring time per instruction.
  • Total work instruction creation hours works out to 3.69 hr at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Base authoring hours works out to 3.13 hr at these inputs.
  • Review and approval hours added works out to 18 % at these inputs.
  • Authoring rate (documents per hour) works out to 8 pieces / min at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where review, revision, and approval allowance sits at 25% and the headline result is 3.91 hr, this scenario comes in 5.6% below the baseline at 3.69 hr.
  • The practical read: the gap between this scenario and the baseline is entirely attributable to review, revision, and approval allowance, so recovering it is worth quantifying in dollars before considering equipment or staffing changes. It uses one average authoring time across all instructions; complex multi-step or safety-critical procedures take far longer than simple ones.

Results at a glance

  • Total work instruction creation hours: 3.69 hr (headline result)
  • Base authoring hours: 3.13 hr
  • Review and approval hours added: 18 %
  • Authoring rate (documents per hour): 8 pieces / min

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Work Instruction Creation Load calculator, set review, revision, and approval allowance to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.