J
I'm wondering how other organizations control their forms. I was cleaning out our "Current Forms" folder in our TS 16949 section of the network drive, and started to realize some of them were pretty old. I dug deeper and found that a lot of our departments have newer revisions of the forms that they are using.
I don't know if the forms in our "Current Forms" folder were intended to be the master copies, or if they were meant to be uncontrolled and used as a reference since the man who set up the system left months before I began working here. I do know that my department is the only one who goes to this folder when they need a form.
I'm tempted to just move our forms to a departmental folder, delete the "Current Forms" folder, and let departments manage their own forms, since they seem to be doing a good job of controlling them. What concerns me is the forms used by multiple departments, and the likelihood that one department will revise the form without finding out who all uses it, and eventually each department will have their own version of the form.
For example, we have a form that we use for 5-P analysis. Quality uses it, Shipping uses it, and I just found out that Safety uses it as well. I'm not sure that if one department decided to modify it, they would inform the other departments. Even if we required some notification, it wouldn't shock me if another department decided to start using it one day, and nobody else would know (which is basically what happened with Safety).
So, what do you think? Do I take control over all forms used in the plant or have each department re-number their forms so they can revise them at will?
I don't know if the forms in our "Current Forms" folder were intended to be the master copies, or if they were meant to be uncontrolled and used as a reference since the man who set up the system left months before I began working here. I do know that my department is the only one who goes to this folder when they need a form.
I'm tempted to just move our forms to a departmental folder, delete the "Current Forms" folder, and let departments manage their own forms, since they seem to be doing a good job of controlling them. What concerns me is the forms used by multiple departments, and the likelihood that one department will revise the form without finding out who all uses it, and eventually each department will have their own version of the form.
For example, we have a form that we use for 5-P analysis. Quality uses it, Shipping uses it, and I just found out that Safety uses it as well. I'm not sure that if one department decided to modify it, they would inform the other departments. Even if we required some notification, it wouldn't shock me if another department decided to start using it one day, and nobody else would know (which is basically what happened with Safety).
So, what do you think? Do I take control over all forms used in the plant or have each department re-number their forms so they can revise them at will?
