I was wondering if it would be possible to review and approve procedures and work instructions without printing them (and without electronic signatures also). Have you ever seen something similar? My idea was to create a PDF file that could be acessed by intranet and the evidence of review and approval would be in a special book of approvals (signatures), like some companies are used to do with technical drawings.

I was wondering if it would be possible to review and approve procedures and work instructions without printing them (and without electronic signatures also). Have you ever seen something similar? My idea was to create a PDF file that could be acessed by intranet and the evidence of review and approval would be in a special book of approvals (signatures), like some companies are used to do with technical drawings.
Sure. Why not? Just make sure one of those procedures is one for creating and approving documents in the way you describe.

The basic goal of International Standards is to create a smooth, efficient environment for getting work done. This may be constrained by several factors:

Regulations for certain industries which prescribe rules for documentation
Legal considerations (patents, trademarks, trade secrets)
Customer requirements (in contracts or published "supplier requirements")
The basic concept to keep in mind is that the folks in your organization should understand how the system works and how to assure they are working with current procedures and not obsolete ones which have been replaced by newer versions.

Welcome to the Cove!:bigwave:

I’m not sure you even have to do that. The standard requires that documents are approved prior to issue. The particulars on meeting that requirement are up to you. Although some folks seem to think that you need something with a signature to “prove” the document was approved, there is no such requirement. Don’t make this stuff any more complex than you need to.

alekra,
We have a protected folder on our server that contains our system docs. Our procedure states that by a doc being posted in this folder that it is approved and current.
Personnel access the folder by links on our "Master List", it works well for us.

alekra,
We have a protected folder on our server that contains our system docs. Our procedure states that by a doc being posted in this folder that it is approved and current.
Personnel access the folder by links on our "Master List", it works well for us.
We use somthing similar to Randy's system, and works for us

It seems really interesting!!! But how do you evidence the approval process? The person who post the file in the folder is the approval person? In which exactly time can anyone know that a procedure is approved and by whom? Is it an intranet?:confused:
Thanks in advance!

1st let me ask you...

Do you require all your procedures to be documented? 9001 doesn't...

As with all other things related to personnel operating within your "system" the role, responsibilities, authorities and competency requirements apply to people approving procedures too.

Other than what I stated go with these other guys.......

I was wondering if it would be possible to review and approve procedures and work instructions without printing them (and without electronic signatures also). Have you ever seen something similar? My idea was to create a PDF file that could be acessed by intranet and the evidence of review and approval would be in a special book of approvals (signatures), like some companies are used to do with technical drawings.
I agree with the other replies in this thread. There are several ways, and signatures are not the only way. If you really want signatures, print the signature page of each proicedure, sign them, and file away. But I wouldn't bother. The pdf method is pretty good too, because it is so robust.

It seems really interesting!!! But how do you evidence the approval process? The person who post the file in the folder is the approval person? In which exactly time can anyone know that a procedure is approved and by whom? Is it an intranet?:confused:
Thanks in advance!
Actually, there are a number of ways to deal with this. Here's a clue: each electronic document has an automatic audit trail which tells who created it. If you go further into many software programs available off the shelf, such documents can be circulated for any number of approvals and the software will keep track of them and aid in Configuration Management as well.

All of this is beyond the scope of the question in this thread. If you are interested, start a new thread and we can take up the topic without derailing this thread.

It seems really interesting!!! But how do you evidence the approval process? The person who post the file in the folder is the approval person? In which exactly time can anyone know that a procedure is approved and by whom? Is it an intranet?:confused:
Thanks in advance!

Use the "Routing" function in MS Outlook. Have the blanks for the individual's names, and they approve the document by forward it to the next person on the routing list. So on and so on.

It is a fairly simple way, and if using Outlook requires no additional software. Check the box to return when the route is complete and it can even track the status and who is sitting on the document (depending on your network).

Wayne

One of my clients is using Outlook routing, as Wayne describes, as their
approval evidence. No printed copies, anywhere. (To be sure, they have
very wide access to computers on the shop floor, so they don't need them.)

It has been a great move for them; a bunch of non value added paper shuffling was eliminated.

Registrar was delighted to receive the TS 16949 readiness review package -
1 CD.

Brad

I have MS Outlook 2003 and cannot seem to find anything on routing when I search help, etc. Any ideas?

Just figured out that the routing feature is in the application it self (i.e., Word, Powerpoint, etc.).

Thanks for the advice and approach. I am going to see how it works out with a recent update to our Quality Manual.

:cool: