Document Identification and Control Numbers

marcusja2002

Involved In Discussions
I was searching elsmar and couldn't find what I was looking for.

I'm in the beginning stages of developing a TS16949 quality system with connections to OHSAS 18001 and ISO14001. That being said my colleges and I looked into our standards and noticed something....in document control it doesn't say anything specific about document control numbers.

I'm used to from my past having SOP-001 document control, or Widget building process WI-001 or Record R-001. I can't find anywhere if I need to have a control number like that attached to the document.

My first question if its not in the standard why to people use them? Second if I don't have to use them, would utilizing the document title as its control in the system be less than optimal?

Thanks in advance for your help.
 

Marc

Fully vaccinated are you?
Leader
Re: Document Control Numbers

There are companies which use the title of the procedure (or work instruction or whatever) as the "identifier". You can use any method you like. SOP-123 is just one method.

The keys are:

1. A way to identify each specific document.
2. A way to be able to identify what the current revision of the document is.

See this simple small company document control matrix for some thoughts: http://Elsmar.com/pdf_files/Doc_Matrix.pdf
 
D

db

The requirement is that documents be identifiable. How we identify them is up to us. My company uses document titles. We don't use numbers. I find that numbers are really useful for the document controller, but almost useless for operators. Someone is likely to ask: "I need the set-up sheet for the Rabit injection molder." They are less likely to say: "I need form F-101-243-0X".

The important thing is to build your system so it works. The more complicated it is, the more "work arounds" you are going to encounter.
 

Marc

Fully vaccinated are you?
Leader
Numbering schemes become more "important" in larger companies. In smaller companies I agree that numbers are of little significance (as per the example that I linked to). Yes - Simplicity rules!
 
J

Javiddemexico

The way i did was to seperate each thing, Manual, Process, Procedure, and Form.

M=Manual
PS=Process
P=Procedure
F=Form

and added the department and numbers and name so may look like this:

P-QA-008 Document Control
 
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