Hi All,
Our current document control approval system lacks a standardized, simple, and easy-to-implement system. Different combinations of approvers are required for different governing policies, work instructions, procedures, and forms. Furthermore, we have multiple job titles that can be titled "QMR"; however, technically, only one QMR is supposed to exist, our QMR responsible for QMS oversight. However, we could delegate document approval to other "QMR" personnel under our current system (e.g., VPs outside of Quality). Furthermore, in different document cases, documents can be approved by a variety of people, including the process owner, process owner manager, VPs, QMR, and General Manager. and/or President. Above all, there are far too many variables/combinations in relation to document approvers, resulting in far too many chances for system failure.
This has resulted in delays in approval assignment as a result of ambiguity, as people may respond that they are not the appropriate person to approve a document. Quality personnel are unsure and concerned about who to assign. As a result, there is a lack of confidence in explaining the approval assignment process, and our current system efficiency raises more questions than it answers.
We would like to create a straightforward and standardized method for assigning document approvers. For example, for Quality documents, there should be only one set of document approvers (i.e., process owner, process owner manager, QMR). All other documents not Quality related (e.g., financial, security) should only be approved by the process owner and process owner manager. Moreover, Corporate documents should only be approved by our division president. To that end, we would have a system that is simple to rely on and maintain.
My question is, how can we standardize our document control approval system so that we can easily assign the right folks for their applicable documents?
Our current document control approval system lacks a standardized, simple, and easy-to-implement system. Different combinations of approvers are required for different governing policies, work instructions, procedures, and forms. Furthermore, we have multiple job titles that can be titled "QMR"; however, technically, only one QMR is supposed to exist, our QMR responsible for QMS oversight. However, we could delegate document approval to other "QMR" personnel under our current system (e.g., VPs outside of Quality). Furthermore, in different document cases, documents can be approved by a variety of people, including the process owner, process owner manager, VPs, QMR, and General Manager. and/or President. Above all, there are far too many variables/combinations in relation to document approvers, resulting in far too many chances for system failure.
This has resulted in delays in approval assignment as a result of ambiguity, as people may respond that they are not the appropriate person to approve a document. Quality personnel are unsure and concerned about who to assign. As a result, there is a lack of confidence in explaining the approval assignment process, and our current system efficiency raises more questions than it answers.
We would like to create a straightforward and standardized method for assigning document approvers. For example, for Quality documents, there should be only one set of document approvers (i.e., process owner, process owner manager, QMR). All other documents not Quality related (e.g., financial, security) should only be approved by the process owner and process owner manager. Moreover, Corporate documents should only be approved by our division president. To that end, we would have a system that is simple to rely on and maintain.
My question is, how can we standardize our document control approval system so that we can easily assign the right folks for their applicable documents?
