Document Management

The need to manage information is important in all organisations.  It is often your key differentiator from the competition, leading to good customer relationship management, effective service provision, accurate invoicing or any or all the aspects of a quality business.

Information is still predominately held in documents, although in advanced systems, data is held in databases and documents are populated from the database.

However, for most organisations the effective and efficient control of documents, in order to ensure that they are the latest, remains the key area that needs to be optimised.

What is Document Management?
Depending on the business need, the implementation of a Document Management system would normally take place in several phases.

Initial stages involve, registering the existence/creation of existing and new documents in a business area.  Associated key words are attached to the document record, or Full Text Retrieval (FTR), Optical Character Recognition (OCR) aids used, to facilitate retrieval.  An indication of its date of destruction or archiving should be made, so that the system does not suffer maintenance problems in the future.
The next level would normally enable others to retrieve and view a document, allowing it to be marked up (often called red-lining in CAD or graphics images).

The system would be required to ensure security of access to only those with the need and authority.
This can also be linked with Workflow. This facility enables an organisation to stipulate who or what job functions need to be involved in changing a document. 

Workflow can also be used to enforce control over processes. A clerical task may be quite simple; Mr. A checks several boxes of a form, depending on the values contained, passes to Ms. B or C who action further, before Mr. D approves.

In Engineering the workflows are often more complex, requiring multi-step sequences through levels of in-house engineers, external consultants and Approval Authorities and often a degree of iteration.  Engineering Standards and Corporate Standing Orders would require fixed patterns of Approval, often going to the highest level of the company.

Important external issues concern communications with Suppliers and of course the public, raising issues of Document Capture and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).

My Background
My early work was a simple vendor control system for an engineering contractor’s project in the late ‘70s.  Next, in the early ‘80s, a major project was guiding BNFL to a Drawing Registry system for 1.25 m drawings increasing by 1,000 per week, for the THORP Project.  More experimentally, initial attempts to have key data “on-line” were made on this project. In the mid '80s, I pioneered sales and use of a PC system, arguably ahead of its time, and a key element in a client project to register and then make a raster/vector conversion of 80,000 paper drawings.  In late ‘92, I chaired the Intergraph task force set up to re-specify their product’s direction, as a PC based, modular offering.

A later major assignment, for a major utility, was as Programme Manager for the provision of Document Management on 1,500 desktops, the replacement of 140 UNIX CAD seats with Windows/Intel equipment.  In addition, 1,200 standalone databases were to be migrated to an Enterprise wide ORACLE system.
A further large project was to customise and validate a system, to control drawings and documents in a regulatory compliant way for a pharmaceutical R&D facility.

The Service Offered
In recent consultancy assignments I have started from a business base, with a Statement of Document Management Policy. This must include the justification for receiving and keeping the documents, especially if paper based.  Where possible, document and drawing delivery is arranged to be electronic to avoid routine scanning, utilising the fact that most documentation is now generated electronically. It saves the supplier printing, handling and postage costs. Care must be taken not to transfer a massive printing load in house.

The Client’s teams are then taken through the learning curve of the latest technology towards a realistic Requirements Specification, on to a list of potential suppliers and then to a shortlist of those who could provide and support the complete supply as “strategic partners”. Typical Project Activity.

We can therefore offer the complete spectrum of services from defining a strategy, through implementing a system to scanning to populate the system of archive documents for record purposes.

Document Control
This is a separate topic from Document Management, although it may use similar functional modules of Document Registration, Full Text Retrieval (FTR) and possibly Optical Character Recognition (OCR).
We have in mind two applications with which we have been associated. Both have been principally concerned with ensuring that the right person has the right document, at the right time.

Quality Procedures often require confirmation that the latest Standard or Code of Practice or other quality related document are recorded as received, read and understood by the recipients. With E.mail notification and support, this can be achieved. In addition, by allying the system with FTR, it is possible to highlight and/or cross reference all the occurrences of key words pertinent to the changes/revisions involved.

In this case relatively few documents are involved, but the need for the complete textural image and thorough searching techniques are paramount.

In a second implementation a rapid “half-way house” to full Document Management was required. The concern was to identify key documents to the clients operations in the Utilities market and there status and locations. Rather than scan every drawing, schedule, specification etc. the client, with widely spread operations, opted for keeping the identified masters near to the location of the main user(s). The knowledge held centrally was of the existence of the document, its attributes, location and the responsible keeper (including its updating i.e. integrity).

Both these system were custom built and remain valuable, as prototypes.

We normally do not recommend custom software, but these were built from standard programming tools. Whilst larger packaged systems could have provided the functionality; the cost, learning curve and lead time would all have been substantially greater.

Data Capture
Data Capture is targeted at cost reduction and quality improvement.
Whilst most new capital expenditure has a significant component developed in computer format, much of this lost at the hand-over of the equipment, plant or facility. In existing facilities, it will take years to reduce the problem of paper based documentation.

Initiatives in the oil industry, such as CRINE are medium to long term investigations by Operators of Process plant, to reduce the costs by efforts to segregate the use and reduce the needs for documents storage for Maintenance, Litigation and Insurance/Regulation in all sectors of the industry.
A series of linked IT related activities are required to first contain the problem, minimise the costs and ultimately derive benefits of enhanced control.

Master documents and delivery from vendors can be in electronic form with paper being the second choice. A reduction of scanning needs will undoubtedly save money.

During a recent client assignment, it was found that over 50% of their suppliers could provide electronic delivery of most documents on the commonly accepted systems for no extra charge. Some offered to charge LESS, if paper delivery needs were reduced.

The prerequisites for this benefit are clear internal standards for office and CAD systems and a level of PC Competence in your staff to do the basic conversions that may be required. As a starting point the internal standardisation of word processing spreadsheets etc., gives a flavour of the work. The whole topic addresses both quality and the reduction of the volume of paper.

This Survey of vendors provided a list of actions which included the review of Engineering Procedures to reduce the demand for paper copies and the need to specify in detail the formats of transfer for files, magnetic media (all varieties), electronic mail and EDI links, for each separate piece of software in use. On an ad-hoc basis one can ensure that working procedures involve electronic documents or A3 drawings as much as practical to contain internal printing costs.

The potential to increase receipt of electronic files, increases the need to get a document management system installed. The working procedures review referred to above can be directly input into the Workflow control module available in advanced Document Management systems and exploitable by more advanced users. Whereas the handling of databases is not usually an immediate requirement, it must be accommodated in the future.

Except in certain commercial situations, scanning as a routine should be avoided. But on new projects it can have a role especially for drawings, where working CAD documents can be produced from the existing, but often inaccurate material. Capture of text is also possible, but may have a lower pay-back.
In many cases the employment of photogrammetric techniques at the existing plant can save both data capture time and bring a appreciation of the issues to wide audience very quickly.