Ten tips for beginners in Document Control

Starting a career in Document Control is really exciting! But make sure you keep your focus on what Document Control is all about!

We gathered our ten top tips for Document Controllers!

1. Read the Company’s or Project’s document control procedure: you are the guardian of the rules, therefore you have to know the rules!

2. Don’t be afraid to say “no” to a request.

3. The Document Control function is a gatekeeping function: this means that only the documents that comply with the procedure should be accepted. If they do not comply, they should be rejected and corrected.

4. Take every opportunity to learn: What is this document? Why do engineers need it? What project phase are we in? What is the next phase?

5. A Document Controller who never opens the documents to check them only does half of the job.

6. Attention to detail is key. Do things right!

7. “Quick” is the enemy of “Quality”. Always make sure you put Quality before Quickness.

8. Accuracy should be your focus. You’ll agree that 1 and 2 are different when it comes to baking a cake. It is the same in Document Control!

9. Be exhaustive when you perform quality checks on a document: don’t stop your check after the 3rd error. Make the list of all the discrepancies and non-conformities that must be corrected.

10. Authors are writing documents, Draughtspersons are creating drawings, and Document Controllers are controlling documents and drawings! The roles are not to be mixed up!

Finally, don't forget to get a formal training course in Document Control to understand the concepts and the best practices, to ensure that you have a practical understanding of all the tasks involved, and that you have a strong knowledge both theoritical and practical.

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