Goodbye MS Office and paper: Digital management of commissioning documents

In this blog article, we share with you our real-life experiences about the challenges of document management in the commissioning area. We intentionally take a focused look at the commissioning upstream process because there is often a high level of non-value added activities found here. We will cover other topics such as inefficient commissioning and record keeping in separate articles.

The following aspects are covered in this blog post:

- What are the current challenges in document management in commissioning?

- What are the solutions to these challenges?

- What are the benefits of digital document management with a Connected Worker Platform?

Digitizing the commissioning process with a Connected Worker platform can eliminate inefficiencies, media and system discontinuities, and data silos, and leverage tremendous improvement potential:

• Easy creation of multimedia digital test protocols with drag & drop editor centrally in one software Compared to Word, Excel or PowerPoint files, an integrated editor in a Connected Worker Platform often dictates the design and document structure. In the specific example of Operations1, the document structure is based on many years of collaboration and continuous feedback interviews with customers. This ensures from the creation of a commissioning document that work steps are structured as well as clearly presented and that employees can easily consume the information presented.
  Using drag & drop elements, work steps can be created quickly and easily and provided with a wide range of interactions such as IO confirmation, checkboxes, number feedbacks, multiple choice, free text fields etc. Above all, the inclusion or simple insertion of interactive media such as images and videos allows you to easily communicate complex content to employees. With the simple functionality of an integrated document editor, you have created an intuitive digital commissioning document with just a few clicks and media.

• Avoiding media and system breaks By digitizing your document management, you primarily avoid printing on paper and save further printing and office supplies costs. This fact is not only very interesting for companies with environmental or sustainability goals, but also streamlines your processes by avoiding unnecessary administrative activities that occur in the paper-based process.

• Direct assignment of work orders, tasks, and documents to employees via employee-individual dashboard Whereas with paper-based processes, employees on the shopfloor may have to search for the appropriate order folders themselves or be provided manually by the work preparation department, QA and AV can use a Connected Worker Platform to assign the orders and appropriate documents directly to employees. The orders are clearly displayed on a dashboard with order status and due date information. This means that employees know immediately which orders they have to complete and when, and can concentrate fully on executing the order and carrying out the commissioning.

• Digital versioning of documents with integrated release process Series and machine specifications are subject to constant changes and adaptations in the context of product developments, changing customer requirements, etc. - as a result, commissioning documents are also affected. Whereas previous hybrid revision and release processes, consisting of MS Office and paper, proved to be very labor-intensive, a CWP, in contrast, offers an integrated release process. This is initiated even before documents are published by giving the editor the option of storing change notes, determining the version number logic and requesting approval by a supervisor or colleague. This not only ensures greater process reliability, but also greater release transparency, since, among other things, updates can be traced back through change notes in the historical document history.

• Central document management of all commissioning documents If documents are maintained centrally in a software, not only a uniform format as well as design can be realized, but above all a central provision of documents. Structural classes such as location, department, machine, document type, etc. allow documents to be structured and organized very clearly right from the start. This not only supports findability in search functions, but also enables access authorizations to documents.
  The possibility of establishing a uniform, global process standard for construction line-specific commissioning through standardized documents in the plant-specific national languages holds enormous potential for increasing quality and process efficiency.