Unlock Efficiency and Compliance by Tracking the Right Document Control Metrics with Meridian EDMS
Effective document control is crucial for organisations in industries like engineering, construction, and manufacturing, where the management of technical documentation such as drawings, specifications, and manuals can make or break a project. To improve these processes, tracking key document control metrics is essential. In this blog, we’ll cover the most important metrics, why they matter, and how using an Engineering Document Management System (EDMS) like Meridian can optimise your document management processes.
What are Document Control Metrics?
Document control metrics are measurable indicators that provide insight into the efficiency, quality, and security of your document management system. Tracking these metrics ensures that your document control processes are aligned with project goals, compliance requirements, and operational efficiencies.
Let’s explore the key metrics organisations should measure:
1. Document Approval Cycle Time
What to Measure:
The time it takes for a document to pass through the approval workflow from submission to final approval.
Why it Matters:
Delays in document approvals can stall projects, create bottlenecks, and negatively affect deadlines. Reducing approval cycle time improves operational efficiency and ensures projects move forward as planned.
Meridian’s Role: Meridian EDMS helps streamline document approval workflows with automated routing and notifications. Meridian tracks each stage of the approval process, allowing users to identify bottlenecks and expedite approvals.
2. Document Revision Count
What to Measure:
The number of revisions or changes a document goes through before it is approved.
Why it Matters:
Frequent revisions may indicate unclear processes, poor communication, or shifting requirements. While revisions are often necessary, a high revision count can be a red flag for inefficiencies in the document management process.
Meridian’s Role: Meridian offers robust revision control features. It maintains a complete revision history, ensuring that users can track every change and its source, helping reduce unnecessary revisions and miscommunications.
3. Document Retrieval Time
What to Measure:
The average time it takes users to locate and retrieve a document from the system.
Why it Matters:
Fast document retrieval is critical, especially in engineering environments where quick access to documentation can significantly impact project timelines, audits, and maintenance activities. Prolonged retrieval times can lead to downtime and increased operational costs.
Meridian’s Role: Meridian’s advanced document search capabilities, including metadata tagging and full-text search, significantly reduce retrieval time. By measuring retrieval time, organisations can improve how they organise and manage engineering documents within the system.
4. Compliance with Standards
What to Measure:
The percentage of documents that meet internal or external regulatory standards, such as ISO 19650, during reviews or audits.
Why it Matters:
Non-compliance with regulatory standards, including the internationally recognised ISO 19650 for managing information throughout the lifecycle of construction projects, can lead to legal consequences, financial penalties, or project delays. Tracking compliance ensures that all documents adhere to industry standards and organisational policies, minimising risks and improving operational efficiency.
Meridian’s Role: Meridian automates compliance with internal and external document standards, including ISO 19650, by controlling document access, ensuring version control, and automating audit trails. This automation makes audits more efficient and ensures accurate adherence to both company-specific and industry-wide regulations.
5. Access and Permission Violations
What to Measure:
The number of instances where unauthorised users attempt to access or modify documents.
Why it Matters:
Unauthorised access can compromise sensitive information, violate compliance requirements, or cause costly project errors. Monitoring access violations ensures the security and integrity of critical engineering documents.
Meridian’s Role: The advanced role-based access control of Meridian Engineering Document Management System ensures that only authorised users can access or edit specific documents. By monitoring attempted violations, organisations can enhance security protocols and minimise risks.
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6. Document Distribution Efficiency
What to Measure:
The time and effort required to distribute documents to all relevant stakeholders.
Why it Matters:
Engineering projects often require the involvement of external stakeholders, contractors, and vendors. Delays in document distribution can affect communication and project timelines. Monitoring distribution efficiency helps ensure that information flows smoothly across all parties.
Meridian’s Role: Meridian automates document distribution, integrating with tools such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) and project management systems, ensuring stakeholders receive up-to-date information quickly.
7. Document Storage and Archival Usage
What to Measure:
The amount of storage used for active and archived documents, and how often archived documents are accessed.
Why it Matters:
Proper document storage management helps control costs and maintain operational efficiency. By tracking storage usage, organisations can optimise their storage strategies, ensuring that critical documents are available while outdated files are archived or purged.
Meridian’s Role: Meridian’s document archival features ensure easy retrieval of archived documents while optimising storage. The system also provides organisations with insights into how frequently archived documents are accessed, helping manage storage more effectively.
8. Audit Trail Completeness
What to Measure:
The accuracy and completeness of audit trails that track who accessed or modified documents, when, and why.
Why it Matters:
Audit trails are essential for maintaining transparency and accountability, especially in regulated industries. A complete audit trail ensures that changes and approvals are properly documented and easily traceable during reviews or audits.
Meridian’s Role: Meridian automatically generates detailed audit trails for every document, ensuring transparency and accountability in all document-related activities. By tracking this metric, organisations can identify compliance issues or inefficiencies in document workflows.
Conclusion
In today’s fast-paced engineering, construction, and manufacturing environments, managing document control efficiently is critical for project success, compliance, and productivity. By tracking essential metrics like approval cycle time, revision count, and retrieval time, organisations can optimise their Engineering Document Management System and ensure smoother operations.
Meridian EDMS, with its robust document control features, ensures your team has access to the most up-to-date and compliant documents, improving collaboration, security, and efficiency across all projects. Focusing on the right document control metrics and using a powerful EDMS like Meridian will give your organisation a competitive edge.
How Pentagon Can Help
At Pentagon, we specialise in helping organisations streamline their document control processes by working with existing systems or recommending the best solution for your specific industry. As partners with Accruent, we know that Meridian is an ideal Engineering Document Management System for managing critical engineering documentation.
The Meridian Software is feature-rich and highly configurable, offering both on-premise and cloud implementation options to suit the unique needs of any organisation. By integrating Meridian into your business, you can drive your Digital Business Strategy with the following benefits:
- Build a Single Source of Truth: Achieve connected, digital data to streamline operations.
- Control Document or Data Change Management: Ensure accuracy and consistency across all documentation.
- Enable Secure Data Sharing: Safely share data between systems and personnel with full control.
- Improve Asset Lifecycle Performance: Maximise profitability through optimised asset management.
- Reduce Risk and Safety Issues: Identify and mitigate potential risks through better document control.
- Automated Workflows: Maintain high-fidelity digital information across the asset lifecycle with automated processes.
By partnering with Pentagon and implementing Meridian, you can ensure that your organisation is positioned for success with a robust document management solution that enhances compliance, efficiency, and profitability.
Check out our official introduction to RedEye EDMS, your comprehensive solution for engineering drawing management!
FAQs
What is document control, and why is it important in engineering?
Document control refers to the management and oversight of documents throughout their lifecycle—from creation to revision, approval, and eventual archiving. In engineering, effective document control is critical for ensuring that technical documents like blueprints, specifications, and maintenance manuals are accurate, up-to-date, and accessible to the right people. Proper document control helps maintain project consistency, reduces errors, and ensures compliance with industry regulations, minimising risks and costs.
How does Meridian enhance document security?
Meridian EDMS ensures document security by implementing role-based access controls that allow administrators to define who can view, edit, or approve documents. It also tracks access attempts and modifications, providing an audit trail for each document. Additionally, Meridian supports secure, encrypted storage, whether on-premise or in the cloud, to safeguard sensitive information, reducing the risk of unauthorised access or data breaches.
What types of documents can be managed using Meridian?
Meridian is highly flexible and can manage a wide variety of engineering-related documents, including drawings, schematics, technical manuals, specifications, and contracts. It also handles other business documents like work orders, compliance records, and even multimedia files associated with engineering projects. Meridian’s powerful indexing and search capabilities make it easy to organise and retrieve all these document types efficiently.
How does Meridian integrate with other enterprise systems?
Meridian integrates seamlessly with other enterprise systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools, and Asset Management software. This integration enables organisations to streamline data flow between different departments, ensuring that documents, asset information, and engineering data are all connected. This helps reduce data silos, supports better decision-making, and improves overall operational efficiency.
What is the difference between on-premise and cloud implementations of Meridian?
The on-premise version of Meridian is installed and managed locally on your organisation’s servers, giving you full control over security, customisation, and data management. This option is ideal for organisations with strict data governance or regulatory requirements. The cloud-based version offers greater flexibility and scalability, with lower upfront infrastructure costs and remote access to documents from any location. Both options provide robust functionality, but the choice depends on your organisation’s specific needs and compliance requirements.
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