Records Management
Remember What I Told You Tomorrow:
Project Information Management Archiving.
About Records Management
The ten articles about the collection, storage, retrieval and use of project records are based on a lecture given by Eur Ing Richard Townsend-Rose MA CEng MICE to the Construction Productivity Network hosted by CIRIA on 10th October 2006.
The first part of the lecture called "What, When, Who, and Why" starts with a true story, which is then used to introduce the subsequent elements - 5 articles.
The second part of the lecture called "Operational Ideas" covers various operational ideas for acquiring, keeping, and retrieving records - another 5 articles.
A Story
The Story
I received a telephone call from Spain..... asking for help in obtaining a PCB.....
The Project
A small vessel - a trawler - was designed and built in Port Glasgow, Scotland some time in the 1960's
Sources of Information
Your Records
Documents and information etc which you create:
- Which may be sent to third parties
- Technical Documents under transmittal - Drg's, BOQ's, etc etc
- Technical Queries or RFI's
- Letters etc - Correspondence - may be by email.
- Minutes of Meetings
- Which are kept and used internally
- Record of Happenings - or Diary
- Time Allocation Sheets (People, Plant, etc)
- Contemporaneous Notes
- Which are used for running the job
- Event Schedules
- Task Lists
- Supplier Document Requirement Scheduling
- Which are used for indexing either "at the time" or later
- Groups - such as Tasks
- Keywords
When to Capture Information
As it happens
Capturing Information "As it happens" is by far and away the easiest way, but:
- This means that staff have to be "proactive" and do it as part of their job.
- Document controllers are the key - everything must pass through them
- Often beaten by the "its in my brief case and I need it" syndrome.
- Senior staff must be involved in indexing - registration is a document control function.
- Allocation of drawings to Work Packages or Tasks
- Allocation of a letter to a "Subject" (the file where it resides if paper)
- Copies have to be made for "operational purposes" as the master is now "filed"
- On completion of use, copies of documents should be destroyed
- Electronically of course, the "master" can also be used operationally.
- Staff cannot "leave things", otherwise the action becomes "in arrears".
- No holidays for Document Controllers
- The necessary discipline must be maintained.
Document Controllers
Very Necessary
Document controllers are very necessary as they provide:
- A single (contractual) point for receipt of all project mail - of whatever type, and however it arrives
- On a very large job, there may need to be a small team of document controllers.
- A single entity which is responsible for all the information and its integrity
- They may need specialist skills to operate document control software
- Document Controllers are at the bottom of the organisation - its a very very boring job.
- They need instruction as to what to do - e.g. which documents to issue to which people, when and why.
- There is therefore a constant interaction with senior members of the project team.
- The information that they generate can be used for other purposes - e.g. an SDRS
The Three R's - Records, Records, Records
Records
Records are mandatory under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994
The following leaflets are linked from the Health & Safety Executive's web site at http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/conindex.htm
The following leaflets are linked from the Health & Safety Executive's web site at http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/conindex.htm
- The role of the client
- The role of the planning supervisor
- The role of the Designer
- The pre-tender stage health and safety plan
- The Health and Safety Plan during the construction phase
- The Health and Safety file
- As Built Documents
- Operations & Maintenance Manuals
How to Capture Information
Ways of doing it
There are always many ways to do anything....
- Paper
- Mostly very reliable
- ALWAYS easy to use
- Easy to replicate
- Mostly easy to file (index)
- Mostly easy to find
- Electronic
- May need an IT department
- May need dedicated servers for storage of large volumes of images
- Cannot handle paper "as is".
- Easy to "lose" documents which are improperly "profiled"
- Mixed
- The ultimate solution ???
- Keep electronic documents electronic as long as the process being performed does NOT need paper, then move to paper.
- Scanning paper back to an electronic format is only suitable (after KOFAX) when:
- the paper is in perfect condition,
- the paper is of a uniform type and size.
How to retrieve it - indexing
Indexing
Indexing is a never ending process of generating information to allow documents meeting searchable criteria to be located or listed for further research.
- Index information grows as actions are taken - by virtue of records of actions being kept
- Additional information may be added as it becomes available, namely
- Keywords which are allocated manually - often based on word search's such as "Include xxx Exclude yyy"
- Entities such as Work Packages, Zones, Areas, Levels, etc which are allocated at document level
Format of records & other things
Format of Records
The format depends on:
- what you want to keep (the content of the archive),
- why you want to keep it (the reasons - from statutory to ...)
- where you want to keep it (on site, off site etc)
About Email & Transmission
Transmission
Moving some information with or without attached documents from one place to another
- Post - public reliable, and takes place mostly overnight
- Courier - private, expensive, and takes place on demand
- Email - reliable, cheap, but has its limitations - usually only on size, but also on content
- FTP - reliable, cheap, has virtually no limitations - BUT requires setting up usually via a third party server
- Email is a way of sending a message. It is is however often taken as being the message which was transmitted
- Email is structured in that the following information can be extracted
- The Recipients (including copied to and even blind copied to)
- The Subject
- The Message - its contents
- Any attachments
Summary - What works for who
Team Position
Specific Needs
Best Solution
Principal Actions
Owners
- Health & Safety File (As Built)
- Construction Decisions
- Communicate with Others
CEMDC
Finance & Operation