Revision control and use of "PRELIMINARY" stamp/watermark
Revision control and use of "PRELIMINARY" stamp/watermark
(OP)
Good afternoon, gents. We are currently updating our very old procedures for engineering documentation, and I am surprised at the amount of disagreement we are having. Long story short, we stick to using Numerical revisions for preliminary versions and Alpha revisions once released. Of course the released documents are always under CM control. The disagreement is in the area of the use of "preliminary" watermarking on drawings. For instance, a revision needs to be made, but other exercises need to happen before the full implementation of the ECN (quoting, review, etc). For this instance, let's say the drawing that will be revised is at Revision B. In this instance, the drawing is modified with desired changes and revision is updated to C, and clearly marked "PRELIMINARY". At that point, the preliminary drawing may be sent out for quoting, dfm analysis, or anything else. We have two groups of people that have the following two opinions:
1) If ANY changes are made to the Rev C drawing marked "PRELIMINARY", the drawing revision MUST increment (in this case, to D).
2) If changes are made to the Rev C drawing marked "PRELIMINARY", the drawing revision can stay at C. When the drawing is finalized and the ECN/ECO has been reviewed and released, it will be released at Rev C.
For option 2, if changes are made, either the file name would have a unique identifier to differentiate between the preliminary versions, or the original preliminary watermark will have a unique identifier in it, such as "Preliminary_01"
In your experiences, which method would you personally use?
1) If ANY changes are made to the Rev C drawing marked "PRELIMINARY", the drawing revision MUST increment (in this case, to D).
2) If changes are made to the Rev C drawing marked "PRELIMINARY", the drawing revision can stay at C. When the drawing is finalized and the ECN/ECO has been reviewed and released, it will be released at Rev C.
For option 2, if changes are made, either the file name would have a unique identifier to differentiate between the preliminary versions, or the original preliminary watermark will have a unique identifier in it, such as "Preliminary_01"
In your experiences, which method would you personally use?
RE: Revision control and use of "PRELIMINARY" stamp/watermark
Certainly once drawings start going out of the organization I'd be vary careful making a change and not having an explicit revision change. My employer has got pretty strict on drawings not going out of the organization without the revision being formally process through ECO - though we can usually manage this in a few hours. This is in part due to getting burned by suppliers mixing up revs...
Now that isn't to say extracts of a drawing couldn't go back and forth with supplier if needed to verify specific details or similar but strict document control has its benefits so long as ECO's (or whatever you call your release process) can be done in a timely manner.
(BTW when working somewhere that ECO's could take a lot longer to process I may have voted for option 2 but it does have risks/issues.)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Revision control and use of "PRELIMINARY" stamp/watermark
I suppose IF you have enough procedures in place that specifically say drawings marked with PRELIMINARY are NOT to be used for producing parts, option 2 may work. I would never use this method with an outside vendor.
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli
RE: Revision control and use of "PRELIMINARY" stamp/watermark
TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm
RE: Revision control and use of "PRELIMINARY" stamp/watermark
RE: Revision control and use of "PRELIMINARY" stamp/watermark
Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?
-Dik
RE: Revision control and use of "PRELIMINARY" stamp/watermark
RE: Revision control and use of "PRELIMINARY" stamp/watermark
TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers Entire Forum list http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm
RE: Revision control and use of "PRELIMINARY" stamp/watermark
Two drawings with different information are never issued as the same revision. As canwest notes... you're just looking for problems.
Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?
-Dik