Networked Quality System - Seeking comments from anyone who has networked

[Geoff Cotton]

Hi folks,

We are thinking of putting our Quality Manuals on our computer network as a read only document controlled from one source.

Anybody had any problems with this.

Thanks

Geoff

 

[Roger Eastin]

No, in fact that is a good way to go. We use a system like that and it works great!

 

[Marc]

You might want to take a read through http://Elsmar.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/000093.html and some of the other threads which discuss electronic documentation.

 

[Don Reid]

Totally agree with Roger.

did exactly that with the index page being the first item to spark up.

added hyperlinks to the relevant sections, and away we went.

Don

 

[CarolX]

Excellent idea. That is the approach I am taking. Certainly makes distributuion easier, and there is never a question whether the latest revision is in use. Good Luck!

 

[AJPaton]

Second Don's suggestion.

We put our manual on the local network years ago, before hyperlinking documents became so popular. Our manual has grown to a great size, and therefore takes forever to come up.

Whatever software system you use, modularize the manual so that you don't end up with large inaccessible files.

AJP

 

[Geoff Cotton]

Thanks for the encouragment folk's

Got the system onto our intranet, but still struggling with the 'technofobe' 'we never did it this way' Quality Manager (Ludite) who can't realize web technology is not going to go away even if he won't get his head out the sand.

Before I reinvent, the wheel has anyone got a Policy, Procedure, Work Instruction for the issue / authorisation of documents onto the intranet that suits QS9000 that I could beg.

Thanks

Geoff

 

[Andy Bassett]

Hello Geoff

I used to be a big fan of Intranets, and bascially i still am, having implemented 3 or 4 of them. The thought is that having your QMS in pretty colours in peoples faces all day will enourage them to use it or read it.

My experience is that this has absolutely no influence on the employee take-up of a QMS. They simply will not go in on their own and start refreshing their minds how a procedure should work. If you really want to improve the take-up you will probably have to go back to direct training with hardcopies.

Their is no doubting the usefulness of on-line manuals for the Management Representative, for distributing new versions and making sure that the Manual is up-to-date.

My feeling is that you can implement Intranets in two ways, clever and high-tech or simple and low-tech. If you sit down with an EDP expert he will almoist certainly push you down the route of Hyperlinks etc.

If you have the technology internally to handle this, go ahead. If not keep in mind that the system will have to be frequently updated if you want it to 'live'. In this case hyperlinks and their like are a pain.

Nowaday i always link from the Intranet Page to an Explorer Folder. Yes i know, not very pretty, but at least it means that the documents can be created in a format that nearly everybody can use Word/Visio/Excel, and i can control the access/read/write rights very easily.

Beware of doing too much in Html format, or all the changes, however small, will be routed over your desk, and this will strangle the updating of the system.


Regards


------------------
Andy B

 

[Marc]

There are many ways to do this. Each company has different capabilities. I prefer the simplistic approach of protected directories. As an extreme, one clinet I had took document control so far that there was a form on the intranet one would fill out. As soon as you sent the request for change the document control person's pager would go off and he would retrieve it and start the process.

You have to take a close look at your company and determine what would be best for it. Some companies need the simplicity - others need certain complexities.

I do recommend against canned software in 95% of companies.