If your best operator and your newest one do the same job two different ways, you don't have a process — you have a person. Standard work fixes that, and it's simpler than it sounds.
Most small shops run on the knowledge in a few people's heads. It works — until that person is out sick, retires, or trains the new hire their own way. Standard work is just the practice of capturing the best known way to do a job so everyone can do it that way. It's the cheapest insurance policy you'll ever buy.
Standard work isn't a binder of procedures nobody reads. It's a short, visual, current description of how a job is done best right now: the sequence, the key points that matter, and the ones that bite you if you skip them. One page, often with photos, posted where the work happens.
Don't try to capture everything. Start with the job that causes the most rework, or the one only one person knows. Two or three high-pain jobs first.
Sit with your best operator and capture how they do it. They'll resist (“it's just obvious”) — that resistance is exactly the knowledge you're trying to save before it walks out the door.
Standard work that's out of date is worse than none. When someone finds a better way, update the sheet — that's continuous improvement made visible.
Grab the free standard work template and document one painful job — or have me help you build out the ones that matter most.