Engineering documents and drawings are foundational to any infrastructure project. A typical project usually involves hundreds or thousands of such documents. So, are there any document management best practices, to make your engineering project executions more efficient?

The drawings and documents produced by an engineering department visually explain and define the scope of a project and become the foundational blueprint of a project.

They are referenced by the project’s stakeholders while executing their respective allotted tasks within that scope as per a pre-defined process. In this complex and interconnected process where a single document traverses multiple departments and multiple changes and revisions in its lifetime – produced by one department, reviewed by several internal and external groups – a series of carefully drawn-up protocols and procedures, called ‘best practices’, have become the industry’s way of ensuring that the most optimal document lifecycle management process, from creation to release, is properly followed.

Engineering Document Management Best Practices

Following best practices for engineering document management ensures that all the relevant stakeholders have reviewed documents when required and as required, and that only the latest version of a document has been used.

At Wrench, we have helped customers define, refine, and optimize their document management best practices across the engineering phase before automating it (i.e. building the best practice protocols into their working platform) for maximum efficacy. Here is a summary of the best practice defined for document management across lifecycle of an engineering deliverable:

1. Drawing identification mechanism

All engineering documents should be identified by a unique document number and a revision / version number, along with a description that will help to easily identify the document based on its end-use. Other attributes should be included to facilitate faster searches, like project number, package number, area, document type etc.,

2. Scheduled dates

Every document should should be assigned a specific end date based on its end use. Some organisations also specify the planned dates for intermediate dates for creation, review, IDC etc. Doing this sets the target for the resources working on this document for their respective activity.

3. Document template

A standard template should be specified for each type of document. The template should include all the parameters required by the end user.

4. Quality management for engineering documents

A document process flow should be laid out, starting from the creation of the document, through review, approval, and end use. The role and resource responsible for each activity and identified in the work process should also be specified. This ensures that the proper quality management process is followed before the document gets released for its end use, whether for construction or for procurement etc.

5. Comments management

The comments added to drawings during review should be collated and closed before the drawing is sent to the next stage. To manage this efficiently, a comment resolution sheet which lists all the comments and the closure of the comments should be created, and made trackable. Commenting is usually done manually on printed drawings but the comment resolution sheet should be maintained in MS Excel, or there should be a facility set up for Digital commenting which is done on another layer of the drawing. The comment resolution sheet should then be maintained in a database, and all comments get maintained by the author of the comment, who also will close the comment. All comments need to be maintained systematically with each one’s full audit trail for future reference.

6. Gate system

For all documents, the purpose of issue should be specified, based on the type of document, like Issued for approval (IFA, IFR, IFC, IFI) etc. Also, the approval status code for the document should be specified, like Approved, Approved with comments, Rejected etc.

7. Standard procedures for document submission

When documents are submitted to the client or received from vendors, there should be a standard operating procedure defined, like submit using a transmittal sheet or submittal sheet which list all the documents being submitted with the issue propose. The aging duration should also be defined so that documents are approved or rejected within a specified time.

8. Revision and version numbering

A numbering series should be specified for revisions and versions along with the process for incrementing a document’s revision number. For example, after the document is submitted to the client for approval and if the client marks up comments, the updated document should be submitted as a new revision after incorporating the comments.

9. Access control procedures

All documents, once approved, should be open for editing without a approved change request but only by the person authorized to do so, and that person should be the only one with access to to modify the document. Such access control should be specified for the documents in progress. Access to documents should be strictly controlled based on the project requirements.

10. Document history and audit trail

When a document is revised and submitted, the older revision should be archived along with all the comments. These audit trails of the older revisions should be maintained for future reference.

11. Identification of approved documents

All approved documents should be signed by the specified approving authority (physically or digitally). Any document printed should have the digital signature so that it can be identified. Also, it should be set up in such a way so that any document has to be properly verified before it is used.

12. Easy search and view

Any authorized user should be able to easily retrieve any document by searching based on a document attribute or on the document content.

13. Correspondence management

All incoming and outgoing correspondence, such as RFI, inspection request etc., should be stored within the system with their complete thread of interaction.

To sum up, using best practices for engineering document management as outlined above will help an engineering organisation standardize their processes and ensure that engineering data is systematically stored in a central system which can be easily accessed by any authorized user from anywhere, at any time.