Requirements for electronic archives of project and design documentation

From the translator . Currently, our company is actively working on the creation and implementation of electronic archive systems for design and engineering documentation . Starting the publication of a series of articles on this topic, which will include both original texts and translated materials, we would like to bring to the attention of our readers the article by Lena Aspri, an Australian expert in the field of ECM, dedicated to the problems of using ECM systems for working with drawings. The article was written in 2006, but the issues touched upon in it have not lost their relevance today: the author deals with the specifics of drawings as a special type of documents, problems of compatibility of technical information storage formats, and practical aspects of implementing ECM solutions for working with drawings.
When translating texts on ECM-related issues, the problem of adequate transfer of terminology inevitably arises. For many terms it is quite difficult to find adequate Russian equivalents. Therefore, in the translation of this article, in some cases, we deliberately refuse the tracing of English expressions and transmit them with the help of the revolutions already fixed in the Russian language. So, in some cases, we transfer the abbreviation ECM (Enterprise Content Management) as SER (Electronic Archive System). We consider this step fully justified, since: (1) the electronic archive systems belong to the class of ECM systems; (2) in the article, drawings are considered records (records), and the term “electronic record management systems” (ERM) has not taken root in Russian, and the term SEA is more commonly used to refer to ERM systems in Russian-language publications.

Drawings are important information carriers in many state and commercial organizations, but they have not yet received adequate attention when introducing the SER.
Drawings are important because they represent such assets of the company as buildings, machines, and equipment. Together with the technical documentation drawings describe these assets.
Drawings may well be regarded as records indicating the design and engineering activity, but at the same time, information management experts often underestimate their importance, which often puts the organization at serious risk.
It often happens that the drawings do not pay attention until an emergency situation occurs. Unfortunately, in such situations, the loss of capital assets also often takes place . ( Note to the systematization and transfer to the electronic form of documentation of the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP began only after the notorious events of August 2009. At the same time, our company digitized and technical documents of the Boguchanskaya HPP ).


The risk of an emergency can be exacerbated, including due to improper handling of the drawings. For example:
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• The drawings in the organization are created using CAD-programs, but then printed and sent for storage in paper form. All changes in the project are displayed on paper drawings.
• The organization scans the drawings and uses digital copies in the work, but all the inscriptions and marks about the performance of work are done exclusively in paper versions of the drawings.
  
  It is also necessary to understand which drawings in the organization are controlled and which are uncontrolled documents. If digital drawings are controlled and paper drawings are uncontrolled, then it is necessary to determine how the drawings are revised and work marks are set. Both digital and paper versions of a drawing can be simultaneously considered controlled documents. But even in this case, the procedure for synchronizing changes to documents should be clearly thought out.
  
  It is necessary to clearly describe the properties of the drawings. Drawing metadata may include its number, name, version number, dates of change and approval, etc. Drawing properties may also include a classification structure that can be extracted from an external system: for example, the location of a drawing in an enterprise ERP system.
  
  When introducing an electronic archive system, it is necessary to take into account the organization’s approach to numbering drawings. It is necessary that all used programs support the adopted numbering system. The same applies to the system of numbering versions of drawings.
  
  Based on the specifics of the organization’s work, the ECM specialist should describe the life cycle of the drawing and understand which properties of the drawing change at each specific stage of the life cycle (version number, etc.). It is also necessary to figure out who and how gets the opportunity to view, copy, edit the drawing at different stages of work.
  
  Having an idea of ​​the business processes, the specifics of the objects depicted in the drawings, and the ratio of different formats of the drawings, the ECM specialist must understand how the introduction of the SER will optimize business processes, expand the possibilities of information exchange and improve the quality of work.
  
  You should consider the possibility of coordination with other information systems (with ERP-systems in particular), automating the processes of editing and approving drawings, working with various drawing formats, etc. And this is not a complete list.