Document control: limit the type of documents (SOP,WI,FRM and Record)

Dear reader, yes this is the old fashion way of document control. If you are able to do it via a blockchain, great, but most of us still are working with an old fashioned filing system and working either with cloud or other sharing system, where people need to find each others documents. In the worse case your company will need to adhere to ISO quality control or FDA quality controls. And they are still old fashioned as well.

So here we go with a an old fashion way, with a lean open mind!.

Document filing can become very messy in a company. People make a mess of documents and there are so many of them: protocols, processes, data, project plans, problems, progresses, ideas, conclusions, sales data, marketing reports etc.

All these documents can be separated in 4 type of files and have a hierarchy:

1. Standard operation procedures ( the process we do in our company)
2. Work instructions ( how do we do it)
3. Forms ( What do we need to fill in (templates))
4. Record ( How did we do it (filed in form))

For instance the process of an order coming into the company:
SOP: In the standard operation procedure you can show with a pictures how an order works in your company for instance the below:

Every box is a Work instructor that can have several forms.

Example of a Work instruction for the order planning internally (short version):

Order planning

o An order is placed via the order form (FRM_xxx_name) and send to [email protected].
o The order is logged by the account manager in "form_xxx_ name" and communicated to production
o The account manager, sends an order confirmation to the customer, and expected delivery date after discussion with production.

etc

The Form in the work instruction is another document that needs to be filled in and can be a word document or an excel sheet or any kind you need for the job.

This is how a FORM could look for the above Work instruction:

A filled in form is a record:

When you change a record ( in this one, add a order), the version number changes.

Does this work for every document?
yes it does! but you need to think about the hierarchy.

For progress reports the Progress reports hierarchy is
SOP: When to fill in a progress report, this can be described for instance in an SOP on projects planning.
Work instruction: How to fill in a progress report, who is responsible, who should sign off etc and which Form to use.
Form : The template that needs to be filled in
The actual filled in progress report = Record.

If you have any questions until now, please ask, if you need sone good templates, then I am happy to give them, or discuss what you need.
Still to come: where to file these three types of documents.

Background: I have 10+ years in different start-ups. My background is a PhD in Chemistry and have studied project management. I launched many products with international teams enjoyed working as a program manager under the CEO in a start-up company that was sold for $250M.
Currently I'm building a start-up company myself, that won many (subsidy) grants, and pitch awards. It launched its first product to market in December 2017 within two years

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