Re: Work Instruction vs. Reference Only document
Agreed, Wes. Nice post. Stamps are a tool to communicate a status of sorts to individuals; a signal to let them know something they otherwise would not have know without the stamp. If you have documents in process or whatever, employees should be trained well enough to know what they are should they see it. All controlled documents in our case have form numbers and revisions. Anything people see without that is uncontrolled, reference only, etc.
I have always found better luck in training/supporting a simple (but effective) system and developing understanding of why control is important.
The point almost all document management systems make is any document not in general circulation, which has no approvals stamped or signed on it should not be used in a process. A document going through the authoring and approval process is NOT in general circulation and does not have such approvals on it; so, ipso facto, it is not usable in the same way a copy of a document which was previously approved, but may now be obsolete, might find its way into the hands of someone performing a process who could mistakenly accept it as a current document. Stamping such an in-process document "uncontrolled" is absolutely unnecessary and may needlessly confuse folks who might think it could be used as a reference when it may contain one or more errors which have not been caught in the approval process, creating havoc for folks who believe "uncontrolled" and "reference" are synonyms.
I find it easy to believe some folks with an "uncontrolled" stamp in their hands (regardless of who they work for) might be eager to stamp it on everything in sight, but that does not make it correct usage as promulgated by most document management experts.
I find it easy to believe some folks with an "uncontrolled" stamp in their hands (regardless of who they work for) might be eager to stamp it on everything in sight, but that does not make it correct usage as promulgated by most document management experts.
I have always found better luck in training/supporting a simple (but effective) system and developing understanding of why control is important.

(...and that's coming from an auditor, even...!)