Importance of Checklists for Food Services, Retail & Manufacturing Industries

A single human brain can hold 4.7 million books in memory. Yet, we often forget a task or two. If you ask the reasons behind it, there are two – ignorance and ineptitude. The former refers to a lack of knowledge for performing the task, whereas the latter occurs because of our inability to apply the things we know.

When we are in a professional landscape, there are a plethora of tasks we handle regularly. These can involve multiple steps, which cannot be skipped. Missing out on these tasks can prove fatal for your organization.

In such cases, checklists can be a useful tool. They help in improving productivity and also ensure that you complete a set of tasks faster than before. It doesn’t matter if you are in the food services, retail, or manufacturing industry – employing checklists are a proven way for improvement.

What are checklists?

Before we start, get this straight – a checklist and a to-do list are not the same. The latter is more for the memory, and it ensures that you have a list of tasks to complete.

A checklist is a standard format that contains a series of steps meant to break down repetitive tasks and make them more manageable.

You can curate checklists for breaking down a major task, such as onboarding a client, into easy steps. It detailedly explains how to go about it.

A to-do list summarizes all the steps you need to follow, whereas a checklist presents the entire method of completing a specific task.

For example, most of us have a to-do list for the slew of tasks we have to complete on a given day.

With AI coming into the scene, the importance of checklists has grown manifold. The adoption of such automated lists has been massive across sectors, but food, retail, and manufacturing have experienced the most growth.

Characteristics of an efficient checklist

Checklists can be used in most scenarios, but it is imperative for them to adhere to the user’s needs and requirements. Here are the must-have characteristics of a powerful checklist –

• A useful checklist is unique to the end-user. Yes, it uses the standard format, but only as a reference.
• It is refined and crisp. It informs you of your duties in the most precise manner.
• It augments teamwork and discipline.
• It is adaptable, i.e., you can make the necessary adjustments as the situation demands.
• It is practical, i.e., it highlights the most vital steps and should provide enough legroom to experiment.

Benefits of using checklists for food services, retail, and manufacturing industries

As per a blog by Dan Flynn for Food Safety News, an industry insider revealed that uncorrected human errors have led to allergens seeping into the food, leading to numerous recalls over the last few years. Often, products go out with the wrong labeling. In such situations, checklists are a great tool to keep a tab on all the steps of the process.

The scenario is similar in the retail and manufacturing sectors too.

Imbibing checklists is beneficial for these industries in more ways than one. Below we list some major reasons –

It helps in keeping everything organized

Checklists are maps for tasks. With your video monitoring system keeping a keen eye on the processes performed, you can better manage deadlines. It also lets you track missed opportunities and keep it all organized.

Acts as a motivation

What happens when you inculcate checklists into your system? It helps you and your employees to become more efficient and effective. For example, inculcating an AI-powered checklist would keep everyone motivated to complete their tasks timely and manage the ancillary tasks smoothly.

Augments productivity

When you employ a checklist for keeping a tab on your routine tasks, it results in fewer mistakes. It results in your employees getting more time to focus on the more crucial tasks. It augments the productivity of your workforce.

Delegation becomes easier

When you have an exact checklist, it lets you break down all the major tasks into smaller and more manageable ones. It gives you more confidence and more nuanced insight into the process, allowing you to delegate with higher assurance and ramp up efficiency.

It lets you show your creative side

When you get rid of the routine tasks with better authority, you let your creative side prosper. With the help of automation and AI, you can ensure that your workplace is relatively stress free. It also means that each employee knows what is expected of him and how to go about it. Plus, the advantage of documenting everything means you don’t need to remember everything and can resort to retaining the most important ones.

These are the benefits a usual checklist has on offer. But what happens when we add AI in the mix?

It entails businesses with an improved view of their processes and offers the following improvements –

AI-powered Checklists allow you to be proactive

Most insiders would know that management falters when they fail to be proactive. With the help of an AI-powered checklist, the chances of not foreseeing the near future reduce considerably. It allows management to manage all their activities and the employees better.

Track compliance in real-time

A checklist helps the employees understand the process better, but what if you feed it directly into your CCTV cameras and give it an AI vision? With video analytics for process compliance baked into your system, you gain the ability to track compliance in real-time and point out any potential gaps. For example, you can use checklists to figure out the PPE usage of your workforce.

Get real-time insights with video analytics for food services, retail, and manufacturing

A checklist allows you to induce consistency and efficiency in your workflow. In his book “The Checklist Manifesto,” Atul Gawande mentions two types of checklists – Do-Confirm and Read-Do.

The Read-Do is a checklist for improvement, i.e., it is best suited for repetitive tasks where your primary aim is to improve the workflow. The Do-Confirm is a post-performance measure, i.e., it is useful once you have performed a job or a step of it

At Wobot.ai, we specialize in curating checklists for businesses and seamlessly integrating them into their core system. We strongly believe that AI-based remote monitoring is the future of monitoring and will help attain the requisite finesse and results for organizations across the globe.AI-powered ChecklistsTo know more about our product and how it can help your business