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We are having an internal discussion about this. Engineering thinks they should own CM and Quality can have the documentation control end. Quality thinks they should have it all.
Any thoughts?
Any thoughts?
I've written and lectured extensively about Document Control AND Configuration Management (which I think is not fully understood by most folks who think of it merely as a housekeeping function of cleaning out obsolete documents and replacing them with new revisions as they come in (from customers, suppliers, regulators, in-house designers, and in-house executives and other bosses.))We are having an internal discussion about this. Engineering thinks they should own CM and Quality can have the documentation control end. Quality thinks they should have it all.
Any thoughts?
In general, Configuration Management (CM) seems to give more folks "wedgies" than anything else to do with document management.
In relatively complicated environments like aerospace manufacturing, my personal opinion is that CM needs to be overseen by someone who has a firm grasp of the big picture (overall operations) of the organization. Merely revising a document is only the beginning of a whole string of decisions ranging the gamut from
to
- "this will take effect when and if we use up all the old stock"
Often, the correct decisions are ingrained in the pertinent personnel to the extent they make them without further thought. Very infrequently, however, some manager will become penny-wise and pound foolish by hiring a low-wage clerk to do something he thinks of as a "filing function" (Configuration Management) when the true function requires managerial level decision making for the optimum decision to preserve corporate profitability and still assure meeting all customer requirements. It also requires thinking beyond the box in terms of knowing that a change as simple as one from straight slot screws to Phillips head may also entail changing production equipment and work instructions and repair instructions and repair kits, changing suppliers, finding a customer for obsolete stock, etc.
- "Stop everything! Recall all previous models, destroy all existing stock, institute an organization-wide purge of all obsolete versions of this document."