Document Approvals Without an EDMS
In a construction project, a document passes through multiple reviews and only after it is approved by the client does it get released for construction. Without an EDMS, tracking the document through all the rounds of reviews and stakeholders would take a lot of time and meticulous effort. With an EDMS, the effort is drastically reduced, along with human error, and so the process becomes efficient and documents get approved much faster. What would take days or weeks without an EDMS can be completed in a matter of hours with an EDMS.
Let’s understand how the document approvals process is impacted by a digital engineering document management system.
First, imagine the process without an EDMS.
You would rely on a human document controller to oversee the transfer of documents from one person to the next. It would go like this: the design team would create a drawing in a software like AutoCAD, the document controller would email it to the first reviewer, collect his comments, action and update the changes into the drawing, rename it, send it on to the next reviewer, collect his comments, action and update them – and so on through all the internal reviews. A similar process would be repeated for external reviews until there was a a version ready to send to the client for his review and approval. The client might add his own comments, which have to go back to the designer, and so on until all changes are completed and the client finally approves the document. The document controller has to manage all these comments and versions as well as the support documentation like cover letters and transmittals.
Now imagine the potential for error in this scenario; the risk of sending a wrong version, or sending it to the wrong reviewer, or sending it too late or not following up with a reviewer – the potential for mistakes at every step is high. If those mistakes are not found and fixed ASAP they compound over time and that’s how delay in project milestones occurs later on, as well as problems with safety and quality. It’s also expensive in terms of manhours and human resources as the document controller has to manually sift through layers of folders and versions if any conflict arises ie if he has to track down an error or answer a question.
How an EDMS Transforms the Approval Process
An EDMS eliminates all these problems.
Of course, nowadays no process is completely manual. If an organization has partially digitized the process – not with an engineering deliverable management system but a generic application like ERP or a file management system – would that make a difference?
Not really.
It still takes a lot of time and effort to save and retrieve documents across applications so the chance of human error remains and the real world impact on the project is negligible.
By contrast, EDMS automates the entire process, which means the potential for human error is eliminated, and there is an immediate, dramatic, and measurable impact on the project.
Now what about the review and approvals process itself? It is optimized for fast turnaround and high quality?
If you have an EDMS – yes. This is where EDMS shines! The modern EDMS is not just a digitized library or file management system or even a digitized version of the real-world process, it’s a better process.
Think of it like this: EDMS offers all the control with only a small fraction of the effort.
At the time of installation the EDMS would have been configured with a workflow for document approval according to your industry’s best practices and quality process but you can also create your own workflow – as easily as drawing a flowchart with actions and yes/no decision points – which you can save in the EDMS and apply whenever you wish.
With EDMS you don’t have to notify the next reviewer that there’s a document waiting on his approval. The system does that. When the reviewer opens his workspace he sees the pending documents in his ToDo list.
With an EDMS you don’t have to worry about versioning. The system automatically updates versions and when a reviewer opens a document he can safely assume it’s the latest version; there will never be any confusion about versions at any stage.
There’s also a huge advantage when it comes to storage; as any document controller knows, the task of creating and managing engineering folder structures is difficult because engineering documents are constantly being updated and renamed. That’s why the importance of a document controller in a construction project cannot be overstated and also why his workload is so high. Even with generic document and file management systems, the task of managing documents relies on the skill and effort of the human document controller. Whereas with an EDMS, the EDMS itself plays the part of the document controller and it automatically carries out the ‘housekeeping’ behind the scenes.
A unique benefit of digital engineering document management systems is in monitoring.
Projects work on pre-set schedules, including target dates for documents approvals. With an EDMS, the status and progress of the document’s approval is captured automatically and you will know at any point if a step is taking longer than it should. Instead of a manager having to keep track of a document being reviewed and having to manually remind people if it gets stuck somewhere, the system will just send an automated reminder to the concerned person.
Those are some of the ways an EDMS impacts the engineering approvals process but there are many more, and the benefits add up over time.
To conclude, a modern EDMS is the best investment a projects organization can make in expediting work and ensuring smooth delivery.
