Documentation Hierarchy
When companies don't know when, how, or what to do to regulate their documentation standards, it can lead to a lot of uncertainty down in the long run. Team members frequently store and maintain documents on their hard drives, or set up cloud storage to share files, but these locations merely serve as dump stations for "stuff" and random documents. However when document management systems are set up correctly from the start, they actually support rather than hinder innovation and growth. Strong document management systems guarantee that everyone in your business, regardless of department or team, understands where a document is stored, where it is in the review process, what needs to be added, and whether or not any discourse actions are required.
ISO 14001 is the most widely accepted international standard for environmental management systems, as well as one of the most widely used strand. According to the Environmental Management System (ISO 14001) organizations must build a documentation system in order to gather, evaluate, register, and retrieve information. The organization will describe the way of creating, publishing, withdrawing, and using documents and records by designing a documentation and record control system and it enable the company to provide the most relevant paperwork for their requirements.
Every organization are used variety types of document internally and externally including the policy, manual, procedures, work instructions, several guidelines or Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), records and forms. Hence when start to create documentation procedure, each organization must have a thorough understanding of the function of each type of document and how it fits into the documentation hierarchy. Documentation hierarchy consists following features.
Policy
A policy is a declarative declaration made by an organization, usually in the form of a system constitution, as well as all the documents that result from it. The policy is usually developed by top management, and its objective is to establish the organization's direction and goals. In addition, the Policy establishes a framework for setting Objectives.
Manual
The manual should be adapted to organization's requirements. The structure and content of the manual can differ based on the size of the organization, the complexity of its operations and the level of expertise of its employees. Small businesses can record their management system in a single manual and large organizations may have multiple manuals to control their management system.
Procedures
Procedures can be in a variety of formats and configurations. They can be more structured, illustrative, narrative or a combination of those. The processes should in most situations, include a title, purpose, scope, responsibilities and authority, a description of operations, and so on.
Work Instruction
The goal of work instructions is to prevent non-conformities by describing how a specific task should be completed. Work instructions are written for those activities in the process that are most likely to result in non-conformities. Work instructions can either be part of procedures or referenced in procedures. Work instructions can be designed similarly to procedures and cover the same aspects.
Record and forms
In order to preserve some proof to show that organization processes satisfied the standards, here is where forms and records come in useful. A record is what the process owner has chosen to demonstrate that the process and activities were carried out according to the procedures and work instructions. Forms are blank templates that will be filled in with data to create these records. Make organization records and forms more practical by being simple and only documenting the information that is required.
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