Engineering Document Management

First Steps in Engineering Document Management
The goal of this guide is to

Set a context for justifying document management
Distinguish engineering document management from clerical systems

Suggest how potential cost savings can be quantified
Introduce Trix Systems software and services
See also: Creating Engineering Document Control Procedures

Introduction to Technical Data Management Systems
Copyright Trix Systems, Inc. Tel (978) 256-4445 or trixsystems.com
Context
Why manage documents?
Many tasks require information from drawings or other documents
If information cant be found, or is the wrong version, costs and risk increase
Costs can be staff or machine downtime or re-working a job
Downtime as people look for information is usually absorbed into overhead
Incidents where reworking costs are incurred are more likely to be noticed
Absent or incorrect information impacts safety
For example: Deepwater Horizon disaster investigators stated they were unable
to find assurance documentation for the incorrectly wired solenoid in the blow
out preventer. Tracking documents in a formal management system was their
recommendation.
Good document management ensures that the correct documents are always
available and easy to find
The goals for document management
Documentation that is static (for reference) must be
Accurate and current, so it is trusted
Easily found, even without knowing specific identifying information
Documentation being changed (edited) must be
Under control, using predetermined workflows
Easily communicated, for reviews, approvals and releases
All documentation must
Support engineering business procedures
Show histories of change
Be secured against intruders and unauthorized edits

Engineering vs. Clerical Document Management
Why Engineering Document Management?
Insurance and other paper-pushing industries manage vast amounts of

documents using clerical document management systems.
These clerical systems work very well for clerical needs but are
unsuitable for the very different environment of engineering
operations. In clerical systems
Documents are standardized think of claim forms. This is the opposite of the
engineering environment where every drawing is unique
Revision control is unimportant as most clerical documents never change
Workflows are unidirectional, not the repeated edit-review-rework flows of

engineering
Distribution and transmittals are relatively unimportant
So engineering organizations require systems specifically designed for

their needs. Clerical systems do not contain the features needed by
engineers
Quantifying Cost Savings
Calculating the costs of disorganized documentation
You can estimate
Time spent looking for documentation
How much time is spent by users looking for drawings or other

documentation?
Cascading interruptions: How much time do others then spend helping these
folk find what they need?
How much machine downtime is also a consequence of these delays?
Multiply these hours by burdened $ rates and extrapolate a yearly cost
Identifiable incident losses
Make a list of occasions when production was lost and/or re-working was
required due to use of incorrect or outdated documentation
Estimate the costs of these incidents and extrapolate to a typical yearly cost
Engineering document management cuts costs
The time needed to locate a document should drop to seconds. No

walking, telephoning or emailing - just a connected computer
Errors from using incorrect documentation disappear. Only the latest,

approved and published versions are used
Time spent manually moving files and attaching to emails is eliminated.

Instead, documents are displayed to the user as soon as they are found
Reports are automatically generated instead of manually created
Knowledge recorded in markup is stored in the system, visible to all who

need to know. This saves more time
Staff are more productive when they know information is reliable
Summarizing the benefits
An Engineering Document Management System reduces costs and

aggravation while increasing quality and timeliness.
QUALITY
TIMELINESS
COSTS
AGGRAVATION
Spreadsheets dont do the job
A spreadsheet is not a document management solution
Spreadsheets are very limited when there are:
Large quantities of different types of data
Requirements to cross-link information
Frequent changes to be made by many people
Different types of information to be presented in one window
Spreadsheets do not impose discipline
Users can bypass procedures to access and change files without

updating the spreadsheet
Document management software uses database tables to

store both data and files and takes care of these factors
Getting started
A document management implementation requires
A requirements study
A pilot installation to test the proposed software
Clean up of existing data to remove duplicates and errors
Loading of cleaned data into the new system
Software installation
Training
Revised procedures
A Requirements Study addresses
What is needed for software and procedures
Legacy data
How should the system be configured to fit your operations?
What legacy data is worth loading into the new system and what
can be omitted?
Overcoming resistance to change
Current custodians of data may fear giving up their jurisdiction
People are reluctant to change established patterns
Trix Systems
Trix Systems provides:
Requirements Studies and Pilots

Review of your processes and data, recommendations for software,
preparation of a budget and installation of a pilot for testing
Software
We develop our own Engineering Document Management software
Data Clean Up & Loading

We consolidate, clean and load existing data into the new system.
Training
On-site and Internet-based training for every level of user
Procedures
Development of realistic procedures for document management and
associated CAD protocols
Trix Systems Software
Trix FastDoc is a cloud-hosted Engineering Document Management

service that provides storage, revision control and secure
distribution.
Trix Organizer Standard is Engineering Document Management

software to install on your own servers.
Trix Organizer Industry Selections provide broad Technical Data

Management for individual industry types.
Trix Project Access enables secure customer and vendor access to

manage, view and transfer data during projects.
Questions - Contact us
support@trixsystems.com
Telephone:
US (978) 256 4445
UK 020 7193 7445
Sweden 010 451 0500
www.trixsystems.com
Copyright Trix Systems, Inc.

Engineering Document Management

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First Steps in Engineering Document Management

The goal of this guide is to

Distinguish engineering document management from clerical systems

See also: Creating Engineering Document Control Procedures

Copyright Trix Systems, Inc. Tel (978) 256-4445 or trixsystems.com

Copyright Trix Systems, Inc. Tel (978) 256-4445 or trixsystems.com

Why manage documents?

Many tasks require information from drawings or other documents

Costs can be staff or machine downtime or re-working a job

Downtime as people look for information is usually absorbed into overhead

Absent or incorrect information impacts safety

The goals for document management

Documentation that is static (for reference) must be

Accurate and current, so it is trusted

Easily found, even without knowing specific identifying information

Documentation being changed (edited) must be

Under control, using predetermined workflows

Easily communicated, for reviews, approvals and releases

All documentation must

Support engineering business procedures

Show histories of change

Be secured against intruders and unauthorized edits

Engineering vs. Clerical Document Management

Copyright Trix Systems, Inc. Tel (978) 256-4445 or trixsystems.com

Why Engineering Document Management?

Insurance and other paper-pushing industries manage vast amounts of

Revision control is unimportant as most clerical documents never change

Workflows are unidirectional, not the repeated edit-review-rework flows of

Distribution and transmittals are relatively unimportant

So engineering organizations require systems specifically designed for

Quantifying Cost Savings

Copyright Trix Systems, Inc. Tel (978) 256-4445 or trixsystems.com

Calculating the costs of disorganized documentation

You can estimate

Time spent looking for documentation

How much time is spent by users looking for drawings or other

How much machine downtime is also a consequence of these delays?

Multiply these hours by burdened $ rates and extrapolate a yearly cost

Identifiable incident losses