Document Quality

Documents within the organization represent the backbone of the entire company, its intellectual capital, that is, the “know-how”, the thing which has been acquired through experience. If that knowledge, which is difficult to obtain is not duly preserved, it may be lost.

Here are some important reasons that documentation has in a quality management system:

• Process standardization. In order for a process to be duly standardized, it must be documented. By doing so, we are ensuring that people develop the processes as they were written in order to achieve the results as expected.
• Organizational planning. At any company level, by documenting the significant elements or processes, we are guiding or focusing people in charge towards the achievement of certain purposes and goals.
• Control of the activities performed. In this case, we are talking about records, where the information on the activities performed during the processes is documented and which, during this, provides us with evidence or support on their performance. In other words, the records allow us to learn about and evaluate the activities performed.
• Process improvement. Documentation allows us to consistently improve processes. Documentation should serve the processes, not all the way around. This means that we should not generate documentation which may obstruct the processes. A well-designed process must have a good document flow.

Documents keep the most important value of a company; I guess you could say that they are its intellectual capital, as knowing how to do something well done and having it duly documented, allows the company to generate value from the knowledge acquired and, in the future, to turn it into profit.

According to all of the above, documents must have certain characteristics in order to be effective:

• Be approved by an appropriate person for the process before being issued.
• Be duly identified and legible. Identification can be performed by a coding which does not lead to errors.
• Be available when required.
• Must be periodically reviewed and updated.
• Modifications to be made must be identified as well as the status of their review.
• Be current for their use in order to avoid obsolete documents in the processes, which may lead to confusion.

The records must also:

• Have a retention time (storage of the information generated).
• Be available for consultation.
• Be protected and safe, to preserve the information from environmental conditions and unauthorized personnel.
• Records must have a final provision. Once the retention time has expired, to know what to do with them.

Although document design must be supervised by those responsible for monitoring the management system, document development must be the responsibility of the personnel involved in the processes. In this manner, commitment is facilitated and, in turn, understanding the requirements is guaranteed. We could say that document management is the development and continuous update of the documents within the organization. Its mission is to ensure that documents are duly controlled and that the personnel involved has full knowledge of them.

Let us remember that document control based on an effective management system is essential for compliance with the standards applicable to our processes.

Don’t forget that getting certified is just the beginning of a journey. Keeping the certification is the most challenging aspect of the certification process. Staying certified implies not only following the processes and procedures that were established, but it also requires the improvement of these. That is why at Eleven Rivers we promote and evaluate document quality, as it allows us to be in continuous improvement on a daily basis.

If your collaborators have learned about and are respectful of the standards set out to keep the management running, the strategy will grow to the point where everyone knows how to create the documents, file and sort them. In this way, document management becomes a company policy and also a habit that will be preserved over the years.

Remember: document management allows your company to:

• Save costs.
• Save time in filing processes.
• Improve productivity.
• Improve information availability.
• Preserve documents with greater control and security.
• Release unnecessary storage space.

Source: Veggies From Mexico Technical Team