When new forms are released, should a transition period be allowed to make the transition smoothly?
Our customer demands us to replace the obsolete forms immediately once the new forms are released. I don’t think their demand justified, so I want to seek others’ opinion or check if the standards have this requirement.

When new forms are released, should a transition period be allowed to make the transition smoothly?
Our customer demands us to replace the obsolete forms immediately once the new forms are released. I don’t think their demand justified, so I want to seek others’ opinion or check if the standards have this requirement.

Sure they should be replaced immediately. There is a reason - justified or not - that the forms have been revised. That change needs to be implemented. Secondly, you can't have more than one version of a document being current at the same time. How would employees ever know what form to use if the attitude towards document control was that "we'll implement it smoothly and when convenient for us"???

It depends on the reason for the change. if the change is merely to correct typos (that don't change the obvious meaning of word or words) or to change the look/feel of the form tehre is no need for an immediate change out of the forms since they are essentially the same.
If the chagne is to eliminate the collection of some data or information that you have found to be unecessarry, the changeout could also be gradual since collecting or not collecting that data has been determined to be irrelevant.
If you make a change to the form that adds data to collected or significantly 'improves' the content of the data or information collected the forms should be changed out immediately as you have determined that the additonal data is necessary.

However I thnk the real point here is that you shouldn't have a lot of copies of any form. copy inventory shoudl be kept to a minimum to avoid these situations. electronic forms are an ideal solution

Generally all our forms come in immediately. If they do not then all change on a specific date. I agree that there cannot be two versions of one form in operation at the same time.

It depends on the reason for the change. if the change is merely to correct typos (that don't change the obvious meaning of word or words) or to change the look/feel of the form tehre is no need for an immediate change out of the forms since they are essentially the same.
If the chagne is to eliminate the collection of some data or information that you have found to be unecessarry, the changeout could also be gradual since collecting or not collecting that data has been determined to be irrelevant.
If you make a change to the form that adds data to collected or significantly 'improves' the content of the data or information collected the forms should be changed out immediately as you have determined that the additonal data is necessary.

However I thnk the real point here is that you shouldn't have a lot of copies of any form. copy inventory shoudl be kept to a minimum to avoid these situations. electronic forms are an ideal solution


It depends on the reason for the change. I fully agree. Some forms cover a span of days. Why make people do the work over again, if the change is not substantive?

Hi darkafar,

Yes, once the new forms are obsoleted, the old forms shall be immediately obsoleted. The intent is not to have two versions of the form at that time. We have a very good system for Document / record change. Each change is determined whether its a Major / Minor change and if training is required or not and accordingly the new record is handled. All our records are saved in a shared directory and thus the user can verify if its the latest version.

As a precautionary measure, we have a provision in the header where the user has to verify the printed record against the shared directory electronic copy and sign.

Regarding the transition period, it can be handled in 2 ways -

1. If the change is critical, then have a delayed effective date so as to conduct all trainings prior to its effective date.

2. If the change is not critical, ensure that everyone using the form is notified, through your internal procedures.

Hope I have clarified.

I'm in the "immediatly replace" crowd.
Train on the new form, gather up the the old ones, distribute the new ones, destroy the old ones.

When new forms are released, should a transition period be allowed to make the transition smoothly?
Our customer demands us to replace the obsolete forms immediately once the new forms are released. I don’t think their demand justified, so I want to seek others’ opinion or check if the standards have this requirement.

I would release the new forms as soon as practical. Meaning, after appropriate training in the use of the forms. What does your Procedures state regarding document control and records? Is there a timeframe that has been established?

It depends on the reason for the change.
Exactly.:agree1:
However I thnk the real point here is that you shouldn't have a lot of copies of any form. copy inventory shoudl be kept to a minimum to avoid these situations. electronic forms are an ideal solution
Exactly.:agree1:

In general it's easy to implement an immediate change over to the newest form but what about active forms already in the system? Is this the real issue here?
It depends on the reason for the change. I fully agree. Some forms cover a span of days. Why make people do the work over again, if the change is not substantive?Indeed, some forms can be active for days, weeks or even months. Then it becomes a decision based on the seriousness of the change. If it's to correct a potential problem caused by an inadequacy of the form, all active records based on the old form that are still likely to encounter the probelm should be recreated on the new form. Otherwise I'd just allow the old forms to filter through the system and implement a "for new records using this form" only change.

It seems very Orwellian 1984'ish to go back and re-enter historic data on new forms!

It has to be decided by the need and the practicality. Your document control procedure should specify it and so should each change.

For the immediate change crowd:

What does yor bank do when the cheque clearance system changes and so do all cheque formats? In not so distant past, we in India passed through a phase of changeover from manual clearance to electronic clearance. The electronic clearance system could not clear the old cheque leaves. Refuse them and the whole system collapses.

Coming back to QMS in industry, I have changed the NCR format. NCRs issued in the previous audit are lying open. Should I sign on them today to close them? They are supposed to be an obsolete format. A semi-record semi-document stage.

It depends on the reason for the change. if the change is merely to correct typos (that don't change the obvious meaning of word or words) or to change the look/feel of the form tehre is no need for an immediate change out of the forms since they are essentially the same.



Bev D is so right here - let me give you and example. We have a form for requestion engineering changes. 3 years ago - a purchasing guy made a HUGE mistake and ordered about 5K copies of the form (5+ year supply). When we reviewed and updated our system last year, the only change to the form was a "review and approval" statement on the footer of the form. The form has not changed - so we will use up the supply, then order to the new format.

I like Bev's answer too. It's worth mentioning that the change process for forms (or any other controlled documents) should include consideration of disposition of existing stock. It's the same as an engineering change for a part. Can existing stock be used to depletion, or reworked, or should it be scrapped? When the decision is made, the process should also include a mechanism for carrying out the disposition. In other words, it should be specified how, when and by whom the disposition is to be carried out.

I am for the immediate change of the form from a specified time, after adequate training if and as required. The older version should be declared as obsolete.

However, as the discussion has also included the already active forms, here is what I have to add.

The change date should mean that the new forms are to be activated from that particular date / time and no obsolete / older version of the form should then be activated. If any older version is already active, it has to be respected and carried on till it is completed as one cannot transfer the entire information or process from already active forms to new forms.

This was also applied to the banking industry as mentioned by Potdar. The new cheques were initiated with the new process, issuing of blank cheques from banks was on new format, older versions were stopped but already issued cheque forms of older version were respected till they were completely used. Same goes for changed NCR formats.

In case of a large inventory of forms, particularly where only some revision is required as mentioned by Carol, may I suggest a use of a rubber stamp to add the information as required on the footer. We may have often come across such amendments from time to time.