The cost of document control - Electronic vs. Paper

Wes Bucey

Quite Involved in Discussions
#21
The Taz! said:
Ya know. . . I would think that having the latest up-to-greatest information/document, available as soon as a change is implemented, would be enough to secure the issue. . . Ethernet is better than sneaker-net any day.
This is an interesting observation, Taz. Many readers will recognize I am a strong proponent of using a high quality Electronic Document Management (EDM) system.

That said, a well-managed paper based system is preferrable to a poorly managed electronic system. In Cove threads and elsewhere, I often see folks who think they have an EDM when all they have is a document sharing system. The key word is "management."

Some organizations are very small and generate very few documents, many of which may be handwritten or hand drawn. These are not sophisticated manufacturers with direct computer interface between inspection instruments and electronic records - they are small shops where the machine operator stops his normal duties of tending the machine to make measurements of critical characteristics of workpiece samples and enter them on his check sheet. Maybe he completes a Control Chart while he's at it. Organizations in this category probably aren't psychologically ready or financially able to change to a sophisticated electronic business model just because "we experts" say it's the best way to go.

However, when the organization is ready to consider stepping up to an EDM, it's important to avoid hubris [another word from Greek drama] and BUY a good EDM system, rather than trying to save money by trying to cobble one together out of Access or Excel or even Word. There may even be some excellent Shareware systems available. The point is: "Why try to reinvent the wheel when you can take advantage of the development work of others?" Would you build your own micrometers to make instrument readings just because you have the machine shop capability to do so?

I have acquaintances who grind their own telescope lenses for their astronomy hobby, but they don't melt sand to make their own glass. If a organization needs special features, it can buy EDM systems that can be customized. If it needs to be able to read and manipulate different document formats (doc, CAD, pdf, jpg, gif, tif, et cetera), it's much easier and cheaper to buy an EDM program with that capability than buying a license for the appropriate software for every possible machine that will access a file.

If the organization wants to make the documents available over a Virtual Private Network or even available to the public over the internet, there are EDM programs that have that feature already.

The most difficult step for most organizations considering EDM is how to deal with all its "legacy" documents. It is important to be able to use the search and security features of an EDM, but they rely on small "meta tags" inserted into electronic files by the EDM when the document is created, which identify the document in a way the computer can understand and manipulate. Legacy files often have to have these meta tags manually added by keyboard input to be fully capable of handling by the EDM.

I once gave a presentation on the EDM topic. One of my handouts was:
Getting started
Many EDM companies recommend some variation of the following procedure:
  1. Buy the program
  2. Pay for only as many licenses as necessary to cover creators and checkers of new documents plus an administrator.
  3. Populate the desired fields (meta tags) on all new documents and file them as normal in the legacy system.
  4. Use the EDM system for checking, approving, redlining and auditing new documents.
  5. Do not open the system to search and retrieval (and defer purchasing those user licenses) until a substantial portion of legacy files have been imported into the EDM system with sufficient populated fields to make searching and retrieving through the EDM system a fruitful activity.

These EDM systems are wonderful tools once they are up and running, but they can present some unique challenges when introducing them into an organization. To protect your career and your sanity, do NOT blindly grasp at the first solution you see. Take some time to examine several of them and talk to current users of each to get a good picture of the stumbling blocks you may expect to encounter.
 
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