How DocBoss Builds The Document Register

We believe there is a very easy and consistent way to create vendor document registers. While DocBoss automates this process for our customers, it is a straightforward method you can use independently.

We start by identifying various “levels” in the order information. The biology keeners may remember taxonomy “ranks” like Kingdom, Class, Order, Genus, Species. When looking at order information, we start with the following levels: Unit, Tag, Model, Manufacturer, Order.

Sample order data

• Line 1 — Manufacturer: NewCo, Model: XXX, Tag: 101, Description: Black Widget
• Line 2 — Manufacturer: NewCo, Model: XXX, Tag: 102, Description: Black Widget
• Line 3 — Manufacturer: NewCo, Model: XXY, Tag: 101, Description: Red Widget
• Line 4 — Manufacturer: NewCo, Model: ZZZ, Tag: 101, Description: Container
• Line 5 — Manufacturer: Acme, Model: AAA, Tag: 101, Description: Tool

We can easily identify how many unique references are associated with each level, yielding 5 units, 2 tags, 4 models, 2 manufacturers, and 1 order.

Mapping document codes to levels

The next step is the most critical component of the process to create document registers. Assume the following document codes have been requested: A01 (MRB), B01 (Quality Manual), C01 (Safety Manual), D01 (Drawing), E01 (Material Test Report), F01 (Completed Instrument Data Sheet).

Each document can be associated to a specific rank:

• A01 — MRB — Level: Order — Qty: 1
• B01 — Quality Manual — Level: Manufacturer — Qty: 2
• C01 — Safety Manual — Level: Manufacturer — Qty: 2
• D01 — Drawing — Level: Model — Qty: 4
• E01 — Material Test Report — Level: Unit — Qty: 5
• F01 — Completed Instrument Data Sheet — Level: Tag — Qty: 2

Assigning the six document codes to their levels generates a total of 16 required documents.

Note that another step is often required, to determine which of these 16 documents are required. We’ll address that in a different post.

Managing the document register

Early in your project, the document register must be submitted to the EPC. It can be a time consuming process to identify each required document, and the tags connected to each doc. As change orders arrive, maintaining the correct document register can be overwhelming. DocBoss combines your order information with the EPC’s list of required doc codes (SDR codes) to create a comprehensive document register. As order information changes, the register is quickly and easily updated.

As documents begin to flow, various data points must be maintained for every document. These include submission dates, doc numbers, statuses, etc. Documents are added, merged and eliminated. Your users never touch the document register which is automatically updated as documents get processed through the system.

A complete overview of your project is available in the document status window. At any time, a copy of the full document register, including all of the transmittal history for every document, can be supplied to the customer.