Originally posted by roadrunner5_2000:
A question was brought up today on the subject of how many copies of a controlled document a person can have that is stamped "Controlled Document". All the copies are of the same document.
True - you can have as many as you want.
Our policy does not cover this nor can we find anything mentioned in the QS-9000 3rd edition QSR. Anybody know?
One person here says he can have as many copies as he wants all stamped "controlled" and only he can make changes.
The key is that every 'controlled' copy, whether 1 or 1000, has to be identified - there has to be a distribution list or other mechanism to ensure that every copy is defined and accounted for and that when a change is made to the master document each 'controlled' copy is addressed.
How you address the change is up to the company. You can send each 'owner' a memo which advises them of the change and says something like "It is your responsibility to remove the prior version from your manual and destroy it". I have also seen some companies that require that the old version be returned to the document owner/distributor or that a signed form be returned where the recipient 'swears' that s/he understands the change, has removed and replaced the old version. In extreme situations (I used to see this in my military manufacturing days) you send someone out to physically take the old document and replace it with the new document. In those days if you 'lost' a controlled document that was issued to you, you had to sign a statement to that affect before you got your copy of the latest revision.
The question is, how many controlled copies do you need?
Also - don't forget that often a document change requires training on the document revision(s).
Much of this is becoming moot by electronic control and distribution.
[This message has been edited by Marc Smith (edited 08 April 2000).]