Signature on a Paper Document? Procedure and Work Instruction Approvals

Does anyone actually sign paper documents as approval evidence any more?


  • Total voters
    57
C

chplain

#21
Re: Electronic Approvals

We submit an electronic file to the head of the department for his approval via Outlook. Once we receive his apporval, we save the e-mail response and release the document. It's a big improvement from sending out hard copies and having them misplaced or lost. :)
We have the same approval process via outlook, we also submit the modified document (Procedure, WI and form) to the manager of department, when he apprope it, he send it to the others related department managers via outlook, with an electonical copy to the document controller.The document will be release, save and distributed once all relevants managers has approve it and send a confirmation mail back to the sender. But the main weak point of the method is that the person who receive the document for validation doen't reply quickly, sometime it take a bit a long time to receive an approval for your document. This is particulary human problem. Of course it help us to save paper.:) :) :)
 
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Helmut Jilling

Auditor / Consultant
#22
Re: All Paper

We have paper signed copies and then post the document to an ftp site for availability. We only keep hard copies of the signed Master docs. Also we have a tag at the bottom of the doc that states the doc is only valid on the day it is printed and lists the date. Another form of security is we use our logo which has color. So if someone prints out a copy, its in black and white. Especially if they manage to get ahold of a Master and try to copy it. Everyone has been advised not to print copies out in color, but even if they do, the Master is the only one without the tag in the footer.
So far this has worked very well. Now, however, we are trying to move to a Corporate structure and have the Top Level documents for our global sites be shared and the sites are only responsible for their procedures. Currently the Corporate Quality Manager approves all Corporate docs, but I would like to implement that someone from each site also approve. I have heard that electronic signatures are available through Adobe for pdf files. Has anyone used this feature? Have you had any issues?
Thanks

On a Corporate, multiple location basis, an intranet, or a folder on the Corporate server with very restrictive write password protection may work well for you.
 

Helmut Jilling

Auditor / Consultant
#23
There are two solutions I am surprised no one has mentioned:

1. The online doc can be a scanned PDF file. This shows both the approval signature, and makes the document very hard to "accidently" modify.

2. Servers are password protected. Your IT people can make the ISO folder very restricted so it is read only for almost all users.

Both methods work pretty well, with little maintenance going forward.
 
Last edited:
W

wessamsheta2000

#24
There are two solutions I am surprised no one has mentioned:

1. The online doc can be a scanned PDF file. This shows both the approval signature, and makes the document very hard to "accidently" modify.

2. Servers are password protected. Your IT people can make the ISO folder very restricted so it is read only for almost all users.

Both methods work pretty well, with little maintenance going forward.
Hi all
it is really good subject, many people in many companies may not appreciate the hard work of Quality or Doc. controller guys on this subject.
any way, in our company it was on the beginning depent on to be in a folder in a Server has password protected. so our IT people can make this folder very restricted so it is read only for all users but it was in Ms-word and without signature.
This was very weak system
but now we are working on transforming it to PDF (signed) and being approved from related parties and on server (protected) too .
 
R

Rockanna

#25
We use the Outlook Voting Buttons to have Management approve documents.
These e-mails are saved as evidence of their approval to release the document into our system. We type the approving names on the cover page of the document.
The QA Manual is signed by the President and QA Manager.
This document is scanned into our system as a pdf for folks to have a copy of the manual signed.

Our registrar accepts this practice.
 
O

Old Quality Gal

#26
In the interest of full disclosure my company develops and sells paperless quality management systems that includes document control.
That being said we have been registered to ISO 9001:2000 for over a decade and use our own paperless product to support our QSM.
In addition the last two companies I worked at prior to this company that I lead to registration one had paper signatures and one had electronic signatures. As a Quality professional I found several benefits to electronic signatures but just to list a few here.
1.) Much faster approval cycles than walking a doc around or having a signing party.
2.) Faster change management cycles. Getting people trained etc.
3.) We have a paper distribution list at minimum so in a nod to reality it isn't always practical to have total electronic access for all end users but this expedites and forces accounting for retrieval of old paper revisions and distribution of new ones.
4.) Several other benefits involving training integration etc but even a bare bones no bells and whistles electronic approval and control system is superior to and should give you measurably better results than a paper one.
Just a Biased Opinion!
Regards,
Mary
PS
Have been very busy lately and have not been participating. it is nice to be back!
 
S

shawnann

#27
We electronically sign all documents that we can. If it's an actual form or document we created and it needs a signature we electronically sign it. If it's a form or document that we received from a customer and it was sent to us electronicall (Office type file) we will electronically sign it, but if it was sent via fax/mail then we manually sign it.

This is something we've been doing since 2001 we we bacame ISO certified.
 
Q

QualityNo1

#28
Our business management documents are only available to view via the intranet and do not have signatures of authority on them. We use a seperate authorisation & release document to which we allow both electronic and paper sign-off on this document.

Steve
 
D

dyeysi

#29
From my previous company, we are using both system since we are still trying to make our documentation 100% paperless.

For electronic type, approval system is incorporated on the Lotus Notes. The originator uploads the file on the Lotus Notes database and sends email to the approving person. Once the document is approved, the approving person's name is already affixed on the emailed file.

Another thing, you can also use this system to let others to view it. You can also set an archival period or can remain active unless you had archived it.
 
Y

Yew Jin

#30
We should go paperless....... this is part of the change management.

People will feel fear, not confidence to change from paper sign off to electronic approval. That's why we have the high rate on paper approval method compare to electronic approval.

Disipline is the one we need once we totally change it to electronic approval to make the whole system effective.

People likes to take accuse "no time to read the emails", "I got 500 emails per day, what you expected?", "OK, give me 2 more days to review the e-document before approve", "where, I can't see there is any e-document pending for me"..........
 
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