Paperless Procedures - Does ISO 9001 Require Paper Documents?

[Foodforthought]

Hello all
I am new to the forum!

I'm looking for a little help...

Per ISO is it mandatory to keep Procedures (quality and operational) in “HARD COPY” binder/book format?

We have 1 master Quality Assurance binder that holds all operation/quality procedures.

There is another 1 binder on the manufacturing floor that holds all operation/quality procedures and 1 binder in the stock room as well.

For a total of 3 binders.

Currently every work station on our manufacturing floor has a networked computer and access to the soft copies of the procedures (with no access to edit).

Can we get rid of the hard copy binders on the manufacturing floor and the stockroom if all employees have access to all procedures onthe network and I keep the Master binder in the quality managers office?

Any help would be great!!

 

[Jim Wynne]

Re: Paperless Procedures

Hello all
I am new to the forum!

I'm looking for a little help...

Per ISO is it mandatory to keep Procedures (quality and operational) in “HARD COPY” binder/book format?

We have 1 master Quality Assurance binder that holds all operation/quality procedures.

There is another 1 binder on the manufacturing floor that holds all operation/quality procedures and 1 binder in the stock room as well.

For a total of 3 binders.

Currently every work station on our manufacturing floor has a networked computer and access to the soft copies of the procedures (with no access to edit).

Can we get rid of the hard copy binders on the manufacturing floor and the stockroom if all employees have access to all procedures onthe network and I keep the Master binder in the quality managers office?

Any help would be great!!

There is no requirement for documents to be on paper. They may be, as the standard says, in any form or medium. The key is satisfying the requirements for control, regardless of medium.

 

[Foodforthought]

Re: Paperless Procedures

Jim

thank you for the reply

Todays day and age it makes more sense to be as paperless as we can.

side note:
Love the forum!

 

[Jim Wynne]

Re: Paperless Procedures

Jim

thank you for the reply

Todays day and age it makes more sense to be as paperless as we can.

side note:
Love the forum!

Welcome aboard. You'll find lots of food for thought here.

 

[Cari Spears]

Per ISO is it mandatory to keep Procedures (quality and operational) in “HARD COPY” binder/book format? ... Currently every work station on our manufacturing floor has a networked computer and access to the soft copies of the procedures (with no access to edit).[/FONT]

Welcome!

We do not control hard copies of procedures. Like you, everyone has access to a networked computer so there isn't any need. We happen to have everything in SharePoint.

 

[sagai]

Re: Paperless Procedures

That is true for EU too

 

[JaneB]

Re: Paperless Procedures

Todays day and age it makes more sense to be as paperless as we can.

Paperless is good whenever and wherever it makes sense. (In some places/on some occasions, it doesn't.)

Jim's advice is sound, as always. ie, the Standard explicitly recognises docs can be in any form or medium.

 

[Foodforthought]

Re: Paperless Procedures

The challenge with paperless is to allow everyone to have the ability to read all of the procedures but eliminate their ability to edit AND print the procedures.

Having any down rev uncontrolled copies floating around would not be a good thing.

 

[JaneB]

Re: Paperless Procedures

The challenge with paperless is to allow everyone to have the ability to read all of the procedures but eliminate their ability to edit AND print the procedures.

Having any down rev uncontrolled copies floating around would not be a good thing.

No, the 'challenge' is simply to achieve good control of documents. That's it.

In your organisation you may not want people to print (for example). In others, that may be important and essential and preventing people from printing would hinder their work.

I think you are assuming that your requirements must or should be universal. They shouldn't and aren't.

 

[Pancho]

Re: Paperless Procedures

The challenge with paperless is to allow everyone to have the ability to read all of the procedures but eliminate their ability to edit AND print the procedures.

Further to Jane's good comment, I'd hope you don't succeed too soon in eliminating everyone's ability to edit either. Improvement in documentation obviously requires edits, so if you eliminate edits, you eliminate the possibility of improvement. As Jane suggests, control instead. Given good control, the more folks that can edit, the faster your docs will improve.