Re: Paperless records?
There are some darn nice options now in flat screen monitors. You might want two per machine with a dual monitor card in the networked computer. One to show the numbered print and a second for reviewing work instructions, control plans and entering SPC or inventory data. If they are serious about paperless, they better be committed to having a computer at each machine to keep the data available to the operator. A centralized computer station that the operator has to walk away from with memorized information is not an effective solution.
It isn't so much the cost of cabinets versus hard drives as the cost of real estate to house the cabinets and the cost of clerks to physically maintain the hard copies, retrieve them, and periodically review them for retention/disposition purposes, updating when revisions occur.
"Some" hard copies
I echo the concept that hard copies of large engineering drawings are "convenient,"
but, even then, provision can be made to except a "working hard copy" from the general "electronic only" rule, provided a process is in place to assure Configuration Management of such hard copies.
Access and permissions to change
The most critical aspect of "electronic only" document management is assuring "fail-safe permission only" changes or deletions of documents.
As Stijloor writes, with the cost of inexpensive desk top and lap top computers dropping every day, it is relatively easy to make the case for cost savings by giving everyone in the organization his/her own computer at a work station and using WIFI systems for network connectivity.
(A large part of the cost savings can be demonstrated by a simple spaghetti diagram showing the time and motion involved in retrieving and transporting and then refiling paper documents at job completion versus a simple click of a menu button at a work station.)
There are many inexpensive electronic document management programs which can provide off-the-shelf software to manage the aspect of
need-to-access versus
ability-to-change permissions for different users.