Do you treat document control as an admin problem?

[jaberwok]

Life can be so much easier in engineering.

[DataServer] /Client Name/Project Number.

Worked for most of my clients.

[tedg]

This is sort of a tough one... I guess it depends on what level of "data" you're talking about.

For the survey I picked Cad/BIM manager

For our A&E office:

1) We have knowlegeable admin staff who handle the "complete project" data (files) such as DA's, Specs and deliverables and maintain those files in a certain directory.

2) However, this is a different place from where we keep project CAD files.
We have a separate drive (or two.. don't ask) where we strictly keep our cad work: working drawing/REVIT files, submissions, file transfers, sketches, cad support etc.

And so in most cases, the actual submittal files get copied into a directory for the admin to take care of as mentioned in 1).
With the CAD side of projects, we usually have a "lead cad" (aka "job captain", etc, etc) who sets up the project in cad, oversees the whole set and is in charge of coordinating submittals etc.

3) And we have a CAD manager/coordinator who manages the CAD servers.

So to answer your question the best way I can...
Project Data: [Specs, Documents, Deliverables (drawing files when applicable)] = Speicalized Admin Staff

Project Cad Data: [cad files drawings/support for a specific project] = Lead Cad person

All General Cad Data: [All files on the CAD servers] = Cad Manager

Does that help?

[dgorsman]

We have a dedicated document control department. All documents that get issued and/or go outside the company or come in from another company go through them. They don't always understand what they are working with, especially for document formats outside the usual office stuff like PDF/DOCx/XLSx (whats a "LIN" file??).

[Wanderer]

We have a dedicated document control department. All documents that get issued and/or go outside the company or come in from another company go through them. They don't always understand what they are working with, especially for document formats outside the usual office stuff like PDF/DOCx/XLSx (whats a "LIN" file??).

That's a similar situation to what prompted my post.
There's a project I'm involved in where a couple of people were hired specifically to oversee document control, but, they're not techs (neither industry nor IT) and we've already had some bumps due to that comprehension level, or lack thereof.

I'm a bit put out by these jobs being filled by admin-types, because a few of us are going to have to get together and hammer down things that we shouldn't have to be addressing, imho (and, as mentioned, I'm not billable, though the other people at the table will be, as far as I know).
I'm also a bit offended by it, being as part of my role here as 'cad manager' is document control and it's sort of a slight seeing a similar role being filled by essentially admin staff, which leaves me with the impression that it's not being taken seriously enough by the project team.

[Wanderer]

This is sort of a tough one... I guess it depends on what level of "data" you're talking about.

So to answer your question the best way I can...
Project Data: [Specs, Documents, Deliverables (drawing files when applicable)] = Speicalized Admin Staff

Project Cad Data: [cad files drawings/support for a specific project] = Lead Cad person

All General Cad Data: [All files on the CAD servers] = Cad Manager

Does that help?

True. I should've been specific in stating I was referring to BIM/CAD/Specs.

In my company, the admin to the engineering department oversees the paperwork that accompanies projects (but, I believe the engineering manager specified the filing system) and the cad coordinator oversees permissions and organization of the drawing/model server and any other supporting technology.

[cadtag]

FWIW -- I worked on two jobs that had a dedicated document conrol manager. Both were very large (area, scope, time frame, & budget)

Melanie - if you try to get a group together, I'ld suggest seein if a librarian can get involved. They are the degreed professionals in information/document storage and retreival.

[Wanderer]

FWIW -- I worked on two jobs that had a dedicated document conrol manager. Both were very large (area, scope, time frame, & budget)

Melanie - if you try to get a group together, I'd suggest seein if a librarian can get involved. They are the degreed professionals in information/document storage and retreival.

Yeah, this is sort of a big one... over a billion dollars, I think. That's why I'd rather have industry people overseeing the data. Our last uber large project was only about 500 million, but, collaboration between trades was non-existent ($$$ in rework and a few close calls re: equipment placement) and the 'document turnover' was basically me hitting on a guy with a key to the project office so I could go in and steal CD's off of people's desks (I wish I was joking).

I'll suggest that to the guy putting the meeting together, see if it goes anywhere...

[StDoodle]

...and the 'document turnover' was basically me hitting on a guy with a key to the project office so I could go in and steal CD's off of people's desks (I wish I was joking).

Wow. I suddenly feel much better about the "organization" at my small place. Thanks for cheering me up!

[dgorsman]

Yeah, this is sort of a big one... over a billion dollars, I think. That's why I'd rather have industry people overseeing the data. Our last uber large project was only about 500 million, but, collaboration between trades was non-existent ($$$ in rework and a few close calls re: equipment placement) and the 'document turnover' was basically me hitting on a guy with a key to the project office so I could go in and steal CD's off of people's desks (I wish I was joking).

I'll suggest that to the guy putting the meeting together, see if it goes anywhere...

Probably straight to HR...

[dkoch]

As an employee of an A/E firm, I suspect that document management means something different to me/my firm than it would to you and your employer. We need to manage documents and files during the course of a project so that all of the team members can easily find the files on which they will be working as well as the associated reference materials (meeting minutes, reports, programs, equipment data, etc) that are needed to support that work. Even after a project is completed, those files have value as examples for future projects and, we hope, as a starting point for additional work for that client. But we are not running the operation of those buildings, and do not have to integrate all of the data from each project into that from previous projects.

Document management has certainly changed dramatically over the course of my 30+ year career. I answered the poll by choosing design/tech staff, because most everything is stored electronically these days, so the people producing the CAD/BIM files are largely responsible for organizing it and controlling it, within the standard directory structure provided to each project. We have an on-site reproduction service in our main office that also handles the storage of scans/PDFs of all issued construction documents, as directed by the PMs and/or design/technical staff. The administrative assistants are responsible for controlling correspondence, minutes, reports and the like. (Tech staff cannot write to those directories, so even when we prepare such documents, the admins have to save the files in their final location.) We do have dedicated staff for processing, filing and returning construction phase submittals, but even that is becoming more electronic as emailed PDFs have replaced overnighted hard copies for the most part. We use Newforma to manage electronic submittals as well as to file project email in a central location accessible to the entire project team.

When I first started, it was all mylar originals, paper prints and flat files, and the was more involvement of non-technical staff in the mechanics of moving all that physical stuff around the office and back and forth to offsite storage, but the decisions on what to save, what to toss and when to do it would still have been made by the professional staff.