What is a Document Distribution List?

P

pldey42

#11
A document distribution list is not a requirement of the standard, it's one very old-fashioned way of meeting 4.2.3.d. It was a military-style distribution method used when documents were paper and a numbered copy was held by each department. When there was a revision, the document control police would march around the building, locate the controlled copies, rip out the obsolete pages and replace them with nice shiny new ones – and they were fearsome: if you could not locate the department's copy within 30 seconds, you were toast.

These days, with electronic systems widely available, a document distribution list is often not necessary. For example, if documents are held online and available through a web-browser or an automated document control system, users can be taken automatically to the correct version and the need for the document distribution list is eliminated. Such documents are often labelled with a notice like “If printed, make sure it's up to date before use” making the user, not the document controller, responsible for checking that 4.2.3.d is met.

For external documents like ISO 9001 or customer specs, it often suffices to maintain a document distribution list in the form of subscriptions to an e-mail change notification list; when the document changes, send them an e-mail telling them the new revision and where to find it.

(That said, the differences between ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 9001:2008 were disappointingly trivial and led most organizations to change nothing; CBs provided an automatic upgrade in most cases.)

Hope this helps,
Pat
 
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Jen Kirley

Quality and Auditing Expert
Staff member
Admin
#12
A document distribution list is not a requirement of the standard, it's one very old-fashioned way of meeting 4.2.3.d. It was a military-style distribution method used when documents were paper and a numbered copy was held by each department. When there was a revision, the document control police would march around the building, locate the controlled copies, rip out the obsolete pages and replace them with nice shiny new ones – and they were fearsome: if you could not locate the department's copy within 30 seconds, you were toast.

These days, with electronic systems widely available, a document distribution list is often not necessary. For example, if documents are held online and available through a web-browser or an automated document control system, users can be taken automatically to the correct version and the need for the document distribution list is eliminated. Such documents are often labelled with a notice like “If printed, make sure it's up to date before use” making the user, not the document controller, responsible for checking that 4.2.3.d is met.

For external documents like ISO 9001 or customer specs, it often suffices to maintain a document distribution list in the form of subscriptions to an e-mail change notification list; when the document changes, send them an e-mail telling them the new revision and where to find it.

(That said, the differences between ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 9001:2008 were disappointingly trivial and led most organizations to change nothing; CBs provided an automatic upgrade in most cases.)

Hope this helps,
Pat
Correct. :agree1: When using an electronic system the expectation of a list of all documents can be fulfilled by pointing to the list online. I keep an additional plan for who will get notified of an update to what - but that is not specifically required, it's just a plan so I can keep it all straight. Of course that means it must be maintained, an effort we avoid by having our electronic "list."

I can see a purpose in having a distribution list for engineering drawings and external documents such as equipment manuals, mostly for the sake of updates if they occur. Once in a great while, during an audit I find an outdated revision stuck inside a cabinet...
 

Jen Kirley

Quality and Auditing Expert
Staff member
Admin
#14
Can anyone quote text from a standard that requires a Document Distribution List?
Usually there's the expectation that somewhere documents will be organized, if not specifically arranged in a list, but truly prescriptive elements saying as much are rare. In ANSI/ISO/IEC 17025(E), 4.3.2.1 says:
A master list or an equivalent document control procedure identifying current revision status and distribution of documents in the management system shall be established and and shall be readily available to preclude the use of invalid and/or obsolete documents.
 

harry

Super Moderator
#15
In the traditional office of the 'hard copy' days, secretaries and other clerical staff used various kinds of aids such as 'master lists' to quickly locate documents and information when required by 'nasty and impatient' bosses. Aids like the distribution list also serves to 'CYA' because many 'busy' managers will deny receiving anything unless confronted with evidence. The distribution list is not a requirement of the ISO 9001 standard but does serve its purpose and is not the 'only' way.
 

Stijloor

Staff member
Super Moderator
#16
In the traditional office of the 'hard copy' days, secretaries and other clerical staff used various kinds of aids such as 'master lists' to quickly locate documents and information when required by 'nasty and impatient' bosses. Aids like the distribution list also serves to 'CYA' because many 'busy' managers will deny receiving anything unless confronted with evidence. The distribution list is not a requirement of the ISO 9001 standard but does serve its purpose and is not the 'only' way.
Good points!! Too often, in the discussions here, people get too wrapped up in what the Standard requires instead of exploring what makes good business sense. A master list, while not required, makes sense.

Stijloor.
 
P

pldey42

#17
A master list might have made sense in 1980, but in 2012?

Who uses a typewriter to prepare documents these days?

Who has no access to e-mail or shared folders on network drives? (Or alternatively, who cannot afford an automated document control system?)

Who cannot give documents meaningful file-names, include a distribution list within them, and put them into a logical folder hierarchy? (Or alternatively, who cannot use the aforementioned automated document control system?)

Who believes that teams of people educated in document control and change management cannot control documents and changes and that such can only be entrusted to a central team?

If the answer to any of the above is “Me,” or “My organization,” then a master list might make sense, although in most cases I would advocate further education. There's a risk that a master list won't scale up and become a centralized bottleneck that frustrates users and tempts them to bypass it. Quality is, after all, everyone's responsibility and surely that includes document control.

Just my 2c,
Pat
 
K

KCIPOH

#19
A master list might have made sense in 1980, but in 2012?

Who uses a typewriter to prepare documents these days?

Who has no access to e-mail or shared folders on network drives? (Or alternatively, who cannot afford an automated document control system?)

Who cannot give documents meaningful file-names, include a distribution list within them, and put them into a logical folder hierarchy? (Or alternatively, who cannot use the aforementioned automated document control system?)


Who believes that teams of people educated in document control and change management cannot control documents and changes and that such can only be entrusted to a central team?

If the answer to any of the above is “Me,” or “My organization,” then a master list might make sense, although in most cases I would advocate further education. There's a risk that a master list won't scale up and become a centralized bottleneck that frustrates users and tempts them to bypass it. Quality is, after all, everyone's responsibility and surely that includes document control.

Just my 2c,
Pat
The above does apply to my organization (i guess i'm working in an organization who still in the age of 1980's) where management (not that they cannot afford but not willing to invest in such a system) and people are hard to be push to pick up these simple aid in controlling their documents and preferred to stick to the old way for the rest of their life, to print out by printer, distribute and acknowledge it and collect back the old revision to be obsolete manually (a don't bother me other than my own work culture), end up i myself doing the whole process and chase after them, most of them dont even know how to use computer to ease their job (language and knowledge barrier), instead they think its a burden for them :(
Summary, what i mentioned in red in my first post are not necessary to be followed exactly but usually it will contain more or less those information i mentioned.

Document distribution list is to ensure latest revised documents are being distributed and available at the point of use while old documents are being collect back for obsolete and destroy once due its retention period (as per clause 4.2.3 (d) to ensure relevant versions of applicable documents are available at points of use to preclude the use of invalid or obsolete documents).
 
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P

pldey42

#20
That sounds like a challenging environment, KCIPOH, and I agree that a master list as you describe is the simplest solution.
 
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