The manufacturing industry, a cornerstone of the global economy, is a very complex ecosystem that encompasses a myriad of processes, ranging right from product design and production to quality control as well as distribution. When it comes to producing the products at a big scale, improving manufacturing efficiency is the key to success. It’s no surprise, then, that today’s global manufacturers are increasingly embracing data analytics, automation, artificial intelligence as well as machine learning in their quest for maximum efficiency.
Effective document management software is, first and foremost, a digital filing system. But more than that, manufacturing document management systems can help you significantly influence productivity by streamlining business processes and bringing more efficient organisation to a complex field.
The Manufacturing Industry and Its Documentation Challenges
The manufacturing industry is diverse, encompassing several sectors, including automotive, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and others. Each industry has its unique set of documentation requirements. For example, the automotive sector deals with the design specifications, assembly instructions, and safety protocols. In contrast, the pharmaceutical sector must manage the formulae, test results as well as regulatory compliance documents.
Managing these documents can be a very daunting task. Traditional methods of document management like physical storage or local servers, are no longer viable due to the sheer volume of all the documents and the need for rapid retrieval. Moreover, all these methods do not provide the flexibility as well as scalability required in today’s dynamic manufacturing environment.
A Perfect Solution for Managing All of Your Manufacturing Documents
When investing in a digital document management solution, it is vital for the document management software you choose to digitally manage all the documents that touch every crucial aspect of your manufacturing process. Version and signature control are just a small slice of the whole pie. The documents necessary to progress through manufacturing include, but are not limited to:
- Product Requirements Document (PRD)
- Bill of Materials (BOM)
- Controlled Drawings
Pre-planned process documents, such as Travellers, testing plans and procedures, QC Inspection Reports, etc.
The logic of how manufacturing documents are stitched together within the database and the Parent-child relationships should be determined depending on your company’s Change Control and Non-Conformance policy and then built into the workflow logic of the DMS.
Manage Company Equipment and Inventory Effortlessly
Managing inventory is essential for maintaining smooth operations and reducing downtime. A DMS can help you track equipment manuals, maintenance schedules, and repair logs. Digitising these documents enables you to keep maintenance records up to date and production lines operational.
Document management for manufacturing provides a centralised repository for tracking inventory, supplier contracts, and purchase orders. With real-time access to inventory documents, manufacturing operations can maintain optimal inventory levels and decrease the costs associated with additional inventory or emergency restocking.
Adhere to Regulations and Compliance
Manufacturing is subject to stringent regulations and compliance guidelines, which can be particularly challenging when relying on manual systems or handling complex production workflows. Document management software simplifies compliance with built-in features that help you control access to information and manage document retention.
Digitally storing and managing quality control documents, inspection reports, and compliance certificates simplifies the audit process and protects your company from legal and financial issues.
A DMS also supports health and safety compliance by helping you manage safety protocols, incident reports, and regulatory compliance documents. Keeping all your health and safety documentation updated and easily accessible is crucial for maintaining a safe and secure working environment and ensuring compliance with regulations. Relevant personnel can quickly access documentation and address safety concerns.
Increase Data Security and Integrity
One of the most valuable benefits document automation offers is the ability to maintain the document accuracy, consistency as well as reliability throughout the entire digital workflow. By using automated manufacturing workflows to manage documents, you can implement very stringent user access controls and centralised data storage. This reduces the potential for unauthorised document alterations or any harmful data breaches — keeping your crucial sensitive information safe while also promoting a reliable working environment.
Improve Collaboration
Deploying manufacturing document management software also promotes improved team collaboration. Your team can quickly update the digital templates and also effortlessly share them across departments or geographical locations, breaking down communication silos that might obstruct the speed of routing and delivery. Your manufacturing teams gain immediate access to essential documents, such as purchase orders, batch records, and quality assurance documentation, ensuring everything is in order before a product reaches the market.
Increase Sales Agility and Personalisation
Digitising your manufacturing documentation enhances sales agility by allowing you to tweak templates and contracts on the fly for regulatory changes, Terms and Conditions, and legal jargon – in a regulated manner. It also allows you to display customised prices to specific customers and automatically adapt to seasonal offerings or campaigns.
Here’s the kicker — in a world that operates on personalisation, sales reps can easily customise documents post-creation or translate them with just a click of a button for global businesses.
Accelerate Supply Chain Operations
Automating document management within the supply chain streamlines operations, enhancing efficiency and productivity. Instant digital access to critical documents facilitates easy tracking of goods— right from production through delivery. It also eliminates the hiccups often caused by manual processes, such as lost paperwork or incorrectly entered data, making it an impactful strategy to prevent system bottlenecks and achieve a smoother operational flow.
Improve Access to Information Across the Organisation
With a DMS, you’ll import, tag, and file documents from various places (like e-mail, fax machines, and existing hard copies) according to a taxonomy unique to your organisation. Your taxonomy is a systematic order for categorising and labelling your files, permitting you to find and manage them easily. Unique metadata in your documentation, like contract numbers, supplier information, and work order numbers, simplify filing and organisation.
Once your taxonomy is established, your document management system can automatically tag and file documents without you having to do anything. Advanced search functionality allows you to find files without combing through multiple folders and subfolders.
By standardising your filing and operations with a DMS, you will promote much greater consistency, reduce the risks of errors, stay compliant, and also protect your data integrity. Streamlining paper-based processes also saves your staff a considerable amount of time, allowing them to focus on more revenue-generating tasks.
In Conclusion
A well-designed document management system is a necessity in the manufacturing industry. By offering a centralised, secure as well as a scalable solution for document management, a DMS like SFT Dox can significantly improve the efficiency and productivity of the manufacturing sector’s operations. If you’re in the manufacturing sector and haven’t yet implemented a DMS, now is the time to do so. Get a FREE DEMO on SFT Dox today!
