Controlled Documents

The term controlled document is used to describe a document that is likely to be revised, reviewed and released several times during it's life cycle. A typical example of controlled document is an engineering drawing. It is common for engineering drawings to be revised over 5 times during the design and construction phase. Other common controlled documents are specifications, procedures, forms, price lists ... etc.

If there are a large number of controlled documents and a large number of people who need to receive them is large, then it is vital to have a system to manage the distribution of controlled documents.

QDMS is a popular software system used to manage the distribution of controlled documents. Transmittals are used to formally issue the latest controlled documents to recipients. If a document that has been previously distributed is revised, then QDMS would automatically be aware that the previous recipients need to be re-transmitted with the latest revisions of the Controlled Documents. This concept is called Pending Transmittals. Once all pending transmittals have been sent, then we can be sure that nobody has an excuse for working with superseded controlled documents.