Eliminating "Hard Copy" Manuals from our Office and Shop Floor - Documentation Medium

[tonyfan]

Greetings: I'm new to my position (ISO Coordinator) within the company and new to this forum as well. I've been asked by my superiors if we could eliminate "hard copy" manuals from our office and shop floor. I do maintain a hard copy/signed and dated master in my office.

We have an electronic version of our Quality Procedures as well as Work Instructions available to everyone on our internal web system.

Any information on the requirements of hard copies would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Sheila

 

[Jim Wynne]

Re: Eliminating "Hard Copy" Manuals from our Office and Shop Floor - Documentation Me

Greetings: I'm new to my position (ISO Coordinator) within the company and new to this forum as well. I've been asked by my superiors if we could eliminate "hard copy" manuals from our office and shop floor. I do maintain a hard copy/signed and dated master in my office.

We have an electronic version of our Quality Procedures as well as Work Instructions available to everyone on our internal web system.

Any information on the requirements of hard copies would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Sheila

Welcome to the Cove.

Note 3 under 4.2.1 of ISO 9001:2008 says "The documentation can be in any form or type of medium." There is no requirement to maintain hard copies of anything. If you choose to maintain hard copies, they (and your computer-based documents) must be controlled in accordance with 4.2.3.

 

[amit_rd]

Re: Eliminating "Hard Copy" Manuals from our Office and Shop Floor - Documentation Me

In my opinion,

1) You might not want to remove any reference documents from the point of use unless its of no help to solve the purpose.

2) If it is an instruction which is not used and You are capable of proving the competence of the workforce to perform the designated task without refering to the instruction, please go ahead

3) Designing any document to satisfy standard should be avoided, the main focus should be satisfy the requirements specified by the standard and we may use different ways to demonstrate that we comply....Our Quality status and customer satisfaction ( new customers adding to the list )for instance are the biggest indicators of successful Quality System

 

[Migre]

Re: Eliminating "Hard Copy" Manuals from our Office and Shop Floor - Documentation Me

Hi Sheila,

There certainly isn't an issue with using electronic versions rather than hard copies (the company I work for have adopted this approach for some years now). For me, the key issues (though there are others too) are:

- Ensuring the people who need to have access to them can actually view them when necessary.
- Ensuring there is clear evidence of document control (i.e. steps taken to ensure only approved employees can amend the documents, update the documents when required etc).

If you possess a version of the ISO 9001 standard (excuse me for assuming this is the management system which you are using but it does appear to be the most common one), then the most appropriate sections to refer to are 4.2.1 General and 4.2.3 Control of documents. Please note that although the phrase 'documented procedure' is mentioned here on a number of occasions, it doesn't necessarily refer to hard copies.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Mick

 

[tonyfan]

Re: Eliminating "Hard Copy" Manuals from our Office and Shop Floor - Documentation Me

Thank you to everyone for the information. I think I have the "proof" that I was asked for to move forward.

Thanks again to everyone.
Sheila

 

[Migre]

Re: Eliminating "Hard Copy" Manuals from our Office and Shop Floor - Documentation Me

And as per usual, Jim sums things up perfectly and much more succinctly!

 

[Ninja]

Re: Eliminating "Hard Copy" Manuals from our Office and Shop Floor - Documentation Me

Great answers above...I'll add in one aspect:

As you move this direction, consider your backup plan as well. Hardcopies don't crash, the hardcopy server rarely goes down, but electronics sometimes misbehave in surprising ways.

Rate the impact on your processes and ability to work if a computer or network misbehaves...and how you would keep the process running in compliance while IT fixes the issue.
It may be a tiny hit that isn't worth addressing, or it may be worth having hardcopy backups stashed in case of need. Backup plans are good things.

Just a thought...

 

[tonyfan]

Re: Eliminating "Hard Copy" Manuals from our Office and Shop Floor - Documentation Me

Thanks again to everyone. I've found a true treasure with the cove and will be sure send others here as well.