Excuse me while I cover my butt...
> However, I differ from Marc's opinion because I believe
> even small companies (if there is any hope for
> growth/expansion) will benefit by having revision level
> system in place that would grow with them.
That sounds good, but many of my clients are mom and pop who are not the least interested in expanding. Two I have in mind off hand have been in business for over 50 years. They're happy at their size and have little to no interest in growth.
The problem comes when one tries to ascribe their paradigm of what a good business is. Some bow to the
Growth and Expansion God. Some (many) do not - they're happy where they're at. In the cases I have in mind, their employee level and output level has been stable for 15 to 20 years. As one told me: "Well, we could look for new business but we'd just be complicating things. We're happy as we are." It's a real neat place. It's almost like going back to the 1950's and Leave It To Beaver. The folks are laid back, none of the stuff going on like we read about in the forums. To be honest, they do quite well and if I was looking for a job and they would hire me I'd probably take it.
I put
One Size Does NOT Fit All! in my 'signature' here in these forums because many times people respond to other peoples questions with their own company in mind, with their own paradigms. I worked in military manufacturing back in the 1980's and early 1990's. Other than the medical device industry and the nuclear industry (or maybe semi-conductor or such), you won't find a more document intensive situation. And I've worked in companies as large and multi-national as Motorola. Now - you want to talk about document control...
I write this only to say - do what is appropriate for your business now. Sure - if you expect to be opening multiple plants in the future and have a 'business plan' (read
road map), then you should be looking at issues including document control and your road map should help. Look to the future - definitely. But, temper yourself with common sense. Businesses evolve. A document control system will evolve as well.
The best example I have of this - it's not document related but the principle is the same - is an IS fella at a client's facility a few years back. We talked about his planning. He told me one of the neat things was he got the job he has (in it for about 2 years at that time) because the last guy over spent. The last guy prepared for unprecedented growth. He had enough disk space that the current IS guy figured 5+ years before they could ever begin to use up that space. Not long after, the company got a contract which nearly doubled their business and I spoke with the IS guy to find out about how things were coming. When I asked about the disk space issue and how a doubling of business (basically data processing for certain large companies) affected that, he said:
"We still have plenty. What you don't understand is the idea of scaleability which is the idea that you can incrementally - as needed - add things like extra disk space. We're still 4 years from needing more disk space. You also have to understand that we process data so disk space is not a sensitive issue here - most everything is backed up onto tape after we process it." And this after a doubling of their business. NOTE: Their biggest problem was hiring and training all the extra people they needed. AND - this is a very aggressive company seeking as much market share and as much growth as possible. Their business plan even considered the possibility of such an unexpected windfall, so they were ready facility wise and for the most part equipment wise.
Moral of story - don't go overboard but keep your business plan in mind. And... some companies are happy at the size they're at. :thedeal: