In this article, I will discuss 9 very simple and effective documents and control procedure and record-keeping techniques. Documents are a set of information about a project or a situation of the project recorded in drawings, charts, photographs, written or legal official papers stored as printed or on a computer. These documents are the history of the project or the organization. The term Data Management is also termed as Documents Management, Documents Control, Digital Asset Management, Content Management, Enterprise Content Management, Document Imaging,  and Records Management.

Who should read this

Most of us have experienced the situation; when the whole of the office was searching for “that file” which was supposed to be somewhere with you and you were unable to dig it out of all the stuff in your computer. Or maybe one of the officers has quit, been fired, retired or transferred someone else has to continue his job. Most of the times this new person is not able to figure out where is the data, information, documents located by the person. Many times this results in missing data or losing the information or the tasks carried out by that person.

Unfortunately, most organizations don’t pay serious attention to documents, drawings and data management until they really need “that file” and can’t locate it. Failing to provide the required documents on time may cause fines, the loss of business, or damage to an organization’s reputation. Technical data management is essential for executions within every organization and is a vital function for the successful management of any office.

Mindset

The aim of  setting standards for documents and data management is just one thing:

“The easiest and quickest access to the record of information in its original and legally official form”

As in this era, all of us are actually working on making things easier in error-free (hopefully) situation.

Hint

There is plenty of software available for a document control system. Some are free and some are paid. But it is strongly recommended whatever software or procedure that you adopt it must be simple and usable by all the users and most importantly, durable. Complicated procedures and software for document control must be avoided. Some of the best practices are discussed below;

• Documentation

The “Start from scratch” is the usual method for initializing the process of making a documentary. This is for the first time you are going to document a letter/chart or a drawing, but for professional documentation use of one “Template file” is recommended. For instance, for text documents; a text file with all the necessary repetitive procedures like the assignment of headers,  footers and page setups should be kept ready to use at any time. For drawings; a template drawing file with all the repetitive procedures like external references attached and drawing styles assigned, will help focus on the actual matter instead of making same drawing adjustments again and again in every drawing. Copy of this file is to be used for further production. This method of using template files will help reduce the time for preparation of documents or drawings. Moreover, this technique will set a standard for your styles which will be updated for perfection as the time passes. This template file could be kept on the desktop for the easy quick approach to it.

• Data Storing & Directory Hierarchy

Every piece of information is precious that is concerned with a situation or organization. So keeping this information stored and making available to all concerned parties is very essential. For electronic documents give logical name while saving a document in a place where it could easily be located by any of the user, or at least the location where someone can assume to look for to find such type of document. While drawing files should be numbered in accordance with a drawing numbering system or file naming conversion which should include activity/group code and numerical series etc. All the drawings and documents must be saved in a systematic directory hierarchy for the project drawings and supporting documents.

Best Practice to Store and organize your CAD files

I make a master folder on my computer that has multiple folders of different categories.

I make a separate folder for incoming data and outgoing data in the master folder.

In both incoming and outgoing folders, I create folders of the current year like 2019 and in this 2019 folder, I create folders of every month and then in every month I add 30 folders name as days of that month. this will tell me what data was processed on what date.

Another option is to place all the folders in one outgoing or incoming folder, with the name of (year-month-date) so it will look like (2020-08-15). all of the files in this date will be placed in this folder. Moreover, this type of data can be sorted by dates and time as well.

• Master List of Documents

A master list or log of drawings and documents must be kept up-to-date to track the documentation process. This list should include all the information about
the documents. Submittal number, Date of submittal, Date of approval, Status of the document, Name of the author and all the necessary information must be included and updated in every phase of the document circulation between concerned parties.

• Submittals/outgoing data

Any outgoing data, while making submittals or sending the document for review, it is recommended to keep this copy of the document in a separate directory, named as the concerned parties and under sub-directories which will mention the year, month and day of document initiation, submission, and approval. The directories will be named by date/time. This will be helpful for finding the contents of any outgoing data or document in its original form, which could later be used for making revisions and vice-versa.

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• Revisions

Always save document revisions under new names instead of overwriting the original (e.g., “My Document rev 1.doc”). Using “Save as” command instead of the “Save” command is a foolproof technique for saving each version of your document separately. Moreover, highlighting the changes in the revised document for ease of reading the document and understanding the changes. Update history of the revisions each time in the document log or master list of drawings/charts/ document. All the revisions must be identical.

• Validation and Approval

When all of the concerned parties agree to the contents of a document, it is referred to as approved and ready for implementation. At this time be sure that the document being approved is the latest version of the document and all of the outdated copies must be collected as soon as possible. The approved documents must be periodically reviewed to make sure that they are still workable.

• Distribution & Availability

Distribution of approved documents to all of the employees for implementation is also a critical procedure. Collect all of the previous versions of the document, before distribution to avoid any misunderstanding or duplication. Protection of electronically distributed documents is essential to avoid changes or edits by unauthorized personnel. The best practice is to convert the document to a read-only format before sharing it with the network. Nowadays internet is a common mean of sharing data and documentation. Electronic distribution of the documents is easier, faster and convenient as most of the people use computers regularly. Reducing the use of paper saves trees.

• Backup and Restore

Documents are a very important asset for a company, firm or a project, which contains important information. Losing the data or document means a gap of information. Therefore keep a backup of all the important documents and data on a regular basis.

• Make it work for you

Once you have decided on the procedures for controlling your documents, it is very important to make sure that all the users and especially the Documents Management/Control Team follows the procedures very strictly. Implementation is an essential part of the success of an idea.

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