Document Control For Engineering Drawings

This procedure describes the requirements on the control of engineering documents. This is an essential document control procedure that ensures all engineering drawings and related technical documents essential for completing the works, including shop drawings by vendors, manufacturers and subcontractors on Projects are duly registered, reviewed, approved and distributed in a controlled manner.

Procedure of engineering documents and drawings control ensures that these documents are available on the projects to all parties that require them and are readily retrievable. This procedure is applicable for all projects unless otherwise determined by the project management.

Other reference documents include engineering management, engineering drawings, as-built documentation and document transmittal procedures.

The following personnel have responsibilities for implementation of activities of this procedure:

Project Engineering Manager
Project Document Controller
Project Manager / Director

Definitions and Abbreviations

EDMS: Electronic Document Management System of which there are several proprietary systems companies using worldwide.

Collaboration portals: Proprietary web based electronic document management and data sharing systems

Controlled document: A document or drawing which is registered and maintained under the direct revision control of the project document controller or directly accessed through an EDMS Document Control process.

Soft Copy: Electronic file of a document or drawing.

Uncontrolled document:

A document or drawing which is:

Not registered nor maintained under the direct revision control of the Project Document Controller
Printed or copied from an EDMS
A copy of a 'controlled' document but no longer under the direct revision control of the Project Document Controller.

Engineering Document Control Procedure

The Project technical / engineering manager shall ensure that all engineering documents, correspondence and records, including 'as-built' documents are controlled in order to meet the applicable quality requirements.

The Project Engineering Manager shall appoint a Project Document Controller who shall control the filing, management of registers and distribution of technical documents and records.

This procedure recognizes that, for some project sites, EDMS may be unavailable and therefore, this procedure describes the process for document control in both circumstances.

Documents Registers

a) Registers shall be used to manage the design correspondence and documents.

b) The following registers shall be developed and maintained by the document controller:

i. Technical Drawings

ii. Transmittals

iii. Design Reviews

iv. Design Change Requests (DCRs) Control of Engineering Documents Procedure

v. Request for Information (RFI)

vi. Engineering Deliverables (Engineering technical documents such as specifications, datasheets, etc.)

vii. Value Improving Practices, etc.

c) These registers shall be kept up to date with clear reference to a current revision number.

d) It is the responsibility of the user to confirm the latest revision by checking it against the document register.

Correspondence and Filing

a) Records shall be filed, and retained in such way that they shall be readily retrieved, and protected from damage.

b) The nominated signatory for all correspondence pertaining to engineering matters shall be the project engineering manager or the project manager.

Control of Documents and Drawings

The sections below describe the processes to control documents and drawings with and without an EDMS.

Control When EDMS Not Available

Upon award of contract, the Project Engineering Manager shall create a document distribution matrix which identifies the types of documents and drawings requiring control and the list of recipients. The project engineering manager shall then instruct the project document controller accordingly.

All documents and drawings received from external sources by any member of the Project team or produced in-house shall be forwarded to the document controller to be registered prior to any other action to be taken.

Upon receipt, the project document controller performs the following activities:

Checks that the documents or drawings received are in accordance with the transmittal.
If not, the project document controller shall refer the discrepancy either to the transmitter or to project engineering manager returns acknowledgment of receipt as per the document transmittal form for drawings, the Project Document Controller shall then:
Stamp the date of receipt on the back of the document
Ensure that the status of each drawing (i.e. For Information, For Construction) is indicated on the drawing
Records details like the reference, title, revision status, date received and cross reference files into engineering drawing and document register. This form shall be kept on suitable proprietary software.

After registration, the project document controller forwards the original documents and drawings to the project engineering manager for review.

At this point, if the documents and drawings are released by the project engineering manager, the project document controller arranges for copies to be produced and issues them to all personnel in accordance with the document distribution matrix.

The document controller shall retain and file the master copy of all controlled documents and drawings and they shall not be issued for general staff use.

When the engineering manager requires that a review shall be determined in accordance with engineering management procedure.

Refer to procedure for As-Built documentation for instructions on the management of 'as-built' documents received from consultants or vendors.

Document Control Using Electronic Document Management System EDMS

The process for control of documents and drawings using an EDMS is identical except that the Project Document Controller shall record details and upload the soft copies of the documents and drawings into the EDMS.

Managing the Soft copies of Controlled Copy Documents

The sections below describe the processes to manage soft copies of documents and drawings.

Labelling Soft Copies

To allow the easy retrieval of digital file copies, the naming of digital copies shall follow the relevant EDMS protocols. The Project Document Controller shall establish these protocols and ensure that they are communicated to all users.

Distribution of Soft Copy Documents

All drawings to be issued via email shall be issued in a compressed format using proprietary software.

Drawing files not to be compressed together in the one file where file size exceeds 1 Mb or such smaller size as required by project internet communication restrictions. For drawings requiring large amounts of memory, each drawing is compressed as an individual file and forwarded as a separate message by email.

Documents or drawings issued by email shall include the following statement in or adjacent to the title block for drawings or cover sheet title block for documents:

"A hard copy of this document I drawing has been signed by the people whose names appear in the title block below."

In addition, a document transmittal form signed by a duly authorised person shall be faxed, mailed or emailed to the relevant party being issued with electronic files. The document transmittal may be either generated by the EDMS or form document transmittal where EDMS is not used.

A statement accompanying the transmittal notice is worded:

"I hereby confirm that the documents/drawings listed above have been reviewed and are approved to the status indicated above."

Controlled Copy Document Transmittal

A document transmittal form is a cover letter or memo identifying the following:

Name of organization issuing the drawings or documents
Name(s) of organization(s) receiving the drawings or documents
The reference number, title and revision of drawings or documents issued.
The date when the drawings or documents are issued.
The form in which the drawings or documents are issued (e.g. hard copy, compact disk, electronic mail )
The number of hard copies issued.
The reason of issuing the drawings or documents (e.g. for information, approval, construction etc.)

The document transmittal process also requires that the receiver returns an acknowledgment to the sender either by fax, by mail or by email. This is an essential step in the process.

All documents and drawings issued by the company, whether by hard copy, as computer files or email attachments shall be accompanied by the document transmittal form for document transmittal

Transmittal Register shall be used to generate transmittal reference numbers and record details of drawings issued to recipients and acknowledgements received from recipients.

Controlled Documents and Drawings

'Controlled' documents or drawings are those which remain under the direct control of the Project Document Controller through the document distribution processes described above. These documents shall be clearly marked as CONTROLLED by the document controller using a CONTROLLED status the stamp shall be in a distinctive color.

All other documents and drawings issued shall be deemed to be 'uncontrolled'. This includes copies of controlled drawings issued to recipients for information only shall be 'uncontrolled' documents and shall be clearly stamped 'Uncontrolled'. The recipients of these drawings shall not be included in the distribution matrix.

The project document controller ensures that all documents and drawings are correctly stamped.

Superseded Revisions of Controlled Copies

Superseded hard copies of documents or drawings with an alpha or numeric revision indicator must be marked 'Superseded'.

Similarly, all computer files of superseded documents or drawings shall be filed in a 'Superseded' directory and an electronic 'Superseded' stamp shall be also be used wherever possible.

The documents or drawing register is to be updated to reflect the current revision.

Superseded documents or documents shall be identified as such and either stamped 'Superseded' or indicated otherwise, and shall be removed from point of use.

The Project Document Controller shall retain the master copies of all superseded documents or drawings.

Cancelled Documents or Drawings

Document controller shall advise all recipients of documents or drawings in the event that any documents or drawings have been cancelled.

Recipients of documents or drawings subsequently cancelled shall be instructed to write or stamp 'CANCELLED' across the title block. Where the cancelled documents or drawing has been superseded by another document or drawing, a note identifying the new document or drawing must be written onto the cancelled document or drawing.

A note shall also be included on the new document or drawing in the revision history box stating 'This document / drawing supersedes document / drawing no. …' with the relevant document number included.

All changes to documents or drawings shall be reflected in the relevant register. The control of cross-reference drawings shall be as per procedure of engineering drawings. The distribution of technical documents will be similar to that mentioned above for drawings.

Relevant Records

Design correspondence and documents registers

Document distribution matrix

Engineering drawing and document register

Master copy of all documents and drawings

Document transmittal

Transmittal register

Document transmittal form sample